Finding Hope
The season is resplendent with rebirth; the leaves on the trees, the noise of the birds flitting around as they prepare nests for a new brood, bees buzzing as flowers bloom to collect the pollen necessary for their sustenance. As the sunlight lengthens its stay in the sky, daily temperatures rise, and the opportunities to take in God’s creation abound, we are thankful for the peace and spaces that allow us to take it all in.
But that is not the experience of all. The aggression in the Ukraine dominates our news feeds with images of shelled buildings and mothers with children seeking refuge in neighboring nations. Millions of others around the world in places such as Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Myanmar are also being displaced by conflict, food shortages, drought, hyper-inflation, and continued repercussions from COVID restrictions.
Our relative peace and ability to appreciate the changing of the seasons is a blessing we often take for granted, more concerned with the increased gas prices and how much extra it will cost to get to the beach this summer. It is easy to get lost in our own worlds and personal struggles or become disheartened with resignation that ‘this is just the way the world is’ and there is not much that can be done.
Yet, our faith instills hope, even in the darkness. God consistently reminds all people that they are not forgotten. Creation is one of the ways God continually demonstrates this unfailing love, a love that instills hope even when it seems impossible. The setting of the sun can bring foreboding of approaching darkness, but Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn paints a different picture, one of the hope God demonstrates in creation when he sings:
A mist rises as the sun goes down
And the light that’s left forms a kind of crown
The earth is bread, the sun is wine
It’s a sign of a hope that is ours for all time[1]
Yes, the world continues to be in disarray. It is all the more important to pause to be thankful for God’s use of creation to remind us of the hope that we have. That hope provides us the motivation to lessen the load others bear. Doing so is another message from God to them that they are not forgotten and that if there is breath in their lungs, hope remains. Seek ways to be God’s creation message to those in need both here in our own neighborhoods and in the distant lands where we know our brothers and sisters are struggling.
[1] Bruce Cockburn. Gavin's Woodpile. Vinyl recording, 1976.
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Dan Kreiss, RPC’s Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach, brings with him a heart for service and a diverse array of experiences in the mission field. Be sure to subscribe to the Mission Outreach Blog to read and follow along as he documents his personal journey and shares his vision for RPC’s mission outreach commitment. Along with providing meaningful resources, this blog will help jumpstart the important conversations our church community must be having about missional living.
Dan Kreiss
Rev. Dr. Dan Kreiss is the Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach at RPC. Dan is particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in its surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education and economic status.