Daring Hope

I was in need of a fresh breath of Hope … actually our whole family needed it.

We’ve been through some hard stuff this year. So Lee – husband, dad, and resident travel agent – planned a beach vacation for our whole family, including my parents. We were looking forward to rest, refreshment, and recovery.

It was a LONG drive – not too many options near Colorado for a beach vacation – but the ocean-front view of Destin, Florida was worth every hour spent in the car.

I woke up early the first morning with a prayer and a song on my heart:

The prayer (which only works with a Southern drawl): “Lord, I’m needin’ me some hope this mornin’!”

The song: “Sovereign” by Chris Tomlin.

My favorite line: “In Your never failing love, You work everything for good. God, whatever comes my way, I will trust You.”

So at 6:30 am, armed with a song and a prayer, Lee and I hit the beach.

Plowing through the soft sand and splashing in the surf, I realized how much I missed the ocean. We prayed as we walked, asking for God to breakthrough in some areas that weighed heavily on our hearts.

“Lord, whatever comes our way, we will trust You.”

As we made our way back to the hotel, we were surprised by a sudden rainfall that seemed to come out of nowhere. Searching the sky for a storm cloud, we saw something that brought us to a standstill – a full rainbow, brilliant in color framed the entire scene – spanning the ocean and the beach – completely visible from one horizon to the other.

It was absolutely breathtaking – or should I say “breath-giving” – because with that colorful display of heavenly glory, came a fresh breath of heavenly hope … exactly what I needed!

Rainbows always remind me that God’s promises never fail and never fall short.

It was as if God was saying: “Kelly, I’m with you. In all the painful uncertainty – I am working everything for good. I will keep my Word – You can count on that – I promise!”

Later I was reminded of this Scripture:

“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” (Lamentations 3:21-23 NLT)

What a hopeful message: We serve a Sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, faithful, promise-keeping God whose mercies really are new every morning … not re-hashed and warmed over … but brand new … radically new … indescribably new!

What if … instead of allowing our fears and worries to steal our hope, we allowed a fresh understanding of God’s new mercies to renew our hope? What would happen if our first breath in the morning was filled with the hopeful truth that our Savior is writing a beautiful story of redemption across the years of our lives?

Would you pause right now and ask the Lord to breathe fresh hope into your heart as you grasp in a deeper way the truth that your Savior never walks away from broken people. He is pursuing you and those you love with a relentless, intentional love. God always keeps His word!