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Moving Forward in Hope

  • Tara Dickson
  • October 21, 2022
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When my grandfather got older, he often kept a cane nearby to help him steady his feet. This was hard for me to accept. The idea that someone I saw as incredibly strong, often bearing the weight of others, would now need assistance bearing his own weight was so painful it hurt.

When He passed on to Heaven, I was the one who ended up with his cane. I was thinking about that cane today and all the images it brought to my mind. Somehow those images aren’t of sickness or being weak, but rather, dependence, trust, and the hope of going somewhere.

It’s the reminder that the body may be weak, but if the spirit is willing there is more than a possibility that you’ll get where you are going.

It’s the idea that it’s okay to need some help in this life. In fact, every sojourner needs a good staff for those steep places that often seem so hard to scale.

The more we realize we can’t do it alone, the more we end up trusting God to be our strength. We learn to surrender our weary hearts and ask a brother or sister to allow us to lean on them for just a moment.

Friend, moving into the tail end of this year, I can’t think of a better staff to pick up and plant in the next hard place than HOPE.

Hope that God goes with us.

Hope that He works all things for our good.

Hope that no weapon formed against us will prosper, and so much more.

This year I’ll take my papa’s cane out and prop it against the mantel as I often do, but I know, this time, it will bring to mind the image of moving forward with the hope of Heaven ahead.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful“ (Hebrews 10:23, NIV).

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Tara Dickson

Tara is a recent widow and mother to four children. Following her husband’s death to, brain cancer in 2016, she began writing to help people find hope in hard places. She also writes children’s fiction, and is an agented author with Credo Communications. She spends her days, teaching, writing, podcasting and being Nana to Ava Rose and Aria Violette. You can find her sharing words of encouragement at taradickson.com or on Instagram @tara_dickson. She makes her home in Franklin, TN where the hills are green and the barns are plenty.

2 comments
  1. Nikki S. White says:
    October 21, 2022 at 7:35 am

    Oh Tara, I love this. God gave you a Papa to show you what trust in our Heavenly Papa looks like. It makes me think of Genesis 47 when Israel (Jacob) worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. What a beautiful picture of hope in a God who can be leaned on. Thank you for sharing your papa’s hope with us.

    Reply
    1. Tara Dickson says:
      October 21, 2022 at 3:23 pm

      Isn’t God good?

      Reply

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