Disclaimer:

Many stories herein are subject to the faulty, and sometimes creative, memory of the blog owner and should not be taken as factual, although the names and events are real! Kind of.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Hope--The Thing With Feathers

Hope--to desire with expectation of attainment; to expect with confidence.

Have you ever hoped in vain for something to happen and it doesn't?  Have you ever heard "quit hoping and do something about it?" 

For some reason, the word 'hope' has had a negative connotation in my mind--kind of like 'luck'--you make your own  I think it's because I've heard, 'don't hope you go to heaven, be sure.   I hope I get good grades, I hope I get a raise, I hope it snows tonight, I hope I lose 5 pounds.  (I hope that last one a lot, but cookies have been getting in the way!)

Some things that are hoped for are out of our control--the weather for instance.  Other things are within our power to achieve--you can hope for good grades or a raise or weight loss, but you have to put forth some effort to achieve that goal--study, work hard, eat less.

A few weeks ago,  my Bible reading was Romans 5:2-5.  The end of verse two says "we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."  What?  Hope in the glory of God? We don't have to hope--we know that we will rejoice in the glory of God if we are Christians.



But if we continue reading the rest of the passage, Paul tells us:  3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.




Ahh--verse 5--"Hope does not disappoint..."  God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, He has been with us through our trials and sufferings which have given us perseverance and character and ultimately, hope.  




I saw the above quote on a painting once in a craft store and wanted the girls to paint something like it for me.  They never got around to it and when I read the verses on hope, I decided to try it myself and tie the two together.  It's in my bathroom--my experimental painting place, where if it is a disaster, no one will see it but me.  I'm not a very good artist or letterer, but I like it and it makes me happy and hopeful to see it as I'm getting ready for the day. 

I like that thought that hope has feathers--it's just nestled there in our hearts, waiting to spread its wings and fly.

I love this poem by Emily Dickinson.  Here's the complete poem.


HOPE is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,


And sweetest in the gale is heard

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.


I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love,love, love this. All of it. Can't wait to see the room in person.
Love you
P

Justin said...

Dickinson's poem is a rebuttal to Marvell's pessimistic line: "Where feeble Hope could ne'er have flown But vainly flapt its tinsel wing." That's from his poem 'The Definition of Love,' the 'where' in the line referring to that love.

Shasta said...

Dickinson is one of my favorite poets!!! Love the room!!

Anonymous said...

Love it! And I have always loved that passage.

One Last Thought.......

Pleasant words are a honeycomb;
sweet to the soul and healing to the body.
Proverbs 16:
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