Wait for it…..

Just this week, I learned that one Hebrew translation for the word “hope” is “to wait for” and, upon learning this, hope did indeed begin to make much more sense to me than it ever has before now.  I think about words and their significance a lot in general, and these days I tend to think much about what the words really mean that Christians seem to throw around with such great frequency–the words which do embody our faith best and which can easily become devoid of any real meaning to those who hear them.

“Hope” is one such word.  We speak much of our great hope–our God of hope, our hope in Christ, our hope for better things here on earth, our hope for peace, our hope for Heaven.  For the past week or so, I began substituting the phrase “to wait for” every time I found myself using the word “hope.”  And as those who know me best might well suspect, my greatest revelation came to me via coffee/tea imagery.  I was thinking about how I have often sat and waited for a close friend to join me for coffee or tea.  Then, I imagined the look I would probably get if someone else I knew walked by me and said, “Hey.  What are you doing here?”  And my response was, “Well, I’m hoping for someone really important to me to show up and join me.”  If this other someone had a big enough ego, they might sit down and have a cup, thinking they are the one I’m hoping for.  Probably, though, they’d look at me strangely and think that I’m wasting my time hoping, as my type of hope probably wouldn’t make good sense to them at all.

What if I changed my words a little though?  What if I said instead, “Well, I’m waiting for someone really important to me to get here.”?  Now, that would make sense to them.  And my point in sharing this imagery that came to me, and all because of what I learned about the word “hope,” is that the surety of the words used in this second response has reminded me all over again of why painting a “for real” picture for those around us of Jesus the Christ supremely matters.  Our hope as his followers is not vague at all–our hope is Him.  And he, when here in the flesh, made who he is, and thus who our God is, quite clear.  No, we’re not wishful thinkers who are stuck here in this coffee/tea shop of life just hoping for a special someone to come along and drink with us.  He, the eternal Spring, has indeed come–and he most certainly will come again.  And we don’t hope so–we know so; and we’re actively waiting, doing his bidding up until that moment.   And though the darkness of this world may shake our confidence at times, our words about him must remain sure.  And we must remain expectant.  Christ will show up–wait for it…..