Oldest brother visited this morning for some porch pondering with me. I sent him home with some tomatoes from my garden still warm from a touch of God’s green thumb. After he left I filled the bird feeders, washed out the bird baths. As I filled one of the bird baths with fresh water, a dirt dauber stung me on the ankle and then crawled in my shoe. Stung the devil out of me several times. I looked like a fool dancing around the bird bath, Penelope’s leash in one hand, trying to yank my shoe off with my other hand. Those dirt daubers are as mean as the hateful little fire ants. Looked like I was doing a rain dance on this beautiful sunny morning.

The sun is such a wonderful ball of blazing gas, fueling the earth, powering the ocean currents, but she’s been turned up to broil lately. I was filling up the bird feeders, sweat dripping down my forehead, when Father Sky sketched a large cloud right in front of the sun’s face. Immediately the air cooled in the cloud’s shade. As Father Sky continued sketching clouds, Mother Nature picked up her watercolor brushes and filled the clouds’ purple bellies with silver rain drops. The wind began playing loud clamorous wind chime symphonies, the bamboo started dancing. As thunder and lightning raced across the landscape, a brief heavy rain burst from the clouds. Didn’t last long but it cooled the earth and soaked all the swing cushions.

Sometimes God has to send a lightning bolt when we’re lackadaisical about our faith. When our spiritual life becomes stagnate we feel disconnected from God. We’re like a sailboat that has no wind to power its sails. Psalm 29:7 reads, “The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.” I believe God sends storms and darkness into our lives with the purpose of testing our faith, teaching us to depend on his grace and his strength. When we weather these storms and sail back into the sunshine of our faith, we’re more grateful for our blessings and appreciate all of God’s gifts. When we survive these storms our faith is strengthened and we’re given the ability to steer others through their darkness. I’ve written many letters of hope to parents who have lost a child. Lots of letters were to couples I didn’t know but having traveled through the nightmare of the death of a child myself, I felt I might send a small ray of hope’s sunshine back into their lives.

Two of my favorite verses of scripture on hope are found in Romans and Psalms. Romans 15:13, reads, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” In Psalm 34:17-18, we read, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Hope is the little ray of light that pierces the darkness when life is harsh. Emily Dickson writes beautifully about hope. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.”

I think hope is such a glorious gift from God. In the darkest of storms we have the hope of a new day dawning. Desmond Tutu wrote, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Hope is not our wishful thinking. Hope is confidence in God and his promises. Nothing can dim the light of God’s hope. It shines eternally in our lives.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.