Hope for Tomorrow (Friday Devotional)

 

Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

- Proverbs 23:18

After they’d had a week away from school for the Thanksgiving break, on Monday I checked with my kids to see how their first day back was. My son gave the same indifferent answer he usually does—some variation of “it was fine” that I’m sure will devolve into little more than a grunt by the time he’s a teenager. But my daughter’s answer got my attention: “it was ok, but I think I liked last year better than this year.”

Upon further investigation, her preference basically boiled to which kids were in her class from one year to the next. But nevertheless, I was struck by a seeming absurdity: at the tender age of 6, my daughter was already nostalgic for days gone by!

There is something within all of us, something which tends to grow as we age and to flourish in troublesome times, which pines for yesterday and fears tomorrow. We look at the past with rose-colored glasses, remembering its victories with fondness and discounting its defeats. Alternately, the future’s uncertainty tends to stir a spirit of anxiety rather than opportunity. When pining for greener pastures, we retreat to memory instead of looking forward to what’s next.

But as Advent reminds us, God offers us more than the comfort of the good old days, he brings us assurance of hope for tomorrow. When Jesus came to this world, he brought, as the beloved carol proclaims, “a thrill of hope” for which “a weary world rejoices.” By lowering himself to our level and becoming flesh, God showed his love for us, love which was then borne out on the cross where Jesus died.

Because of Jesus—his birth, life, death, and resurrection from the grave—we are promised that the trials and travails of this life are not all we have to look forward to. God welcomes all who trust his Son into his kingdom, where we experience eternal life and the glories of redemption and restoration. The future is bright indeed!

So don’t cling too tight to the nostalgia of yesterday; don’t convince yourself your best days have passed you by. You may not know what the future brings, but you know who holds it.