Hope Rises...or Does It Come Down?

#1  This is not a blog about those Holy Spirit questions I had mentioned last time.
#2  But I'm sure I'll mention the Holy Spirit at some point anyway...


Hope Rises...

Or does it come down?...


Or is it always within us???  (...the thing with feathers???  per Emily Dickinson)


I like this poem by Alexander Hope...I mean, Pope:



Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blessed:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

"The soul, uneasy and confined from home" makes me start singing this oldie I grew up listening to on my mom's record player:



IT'S SO TRUE THOUGH! 
This world is not my home. 
I'm thankful for hope in something better, something eternal, something that comes from....wait for it...

THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!  (Insert cheers and applause here.)

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  (Romans:15:13)

The God of HOPE fills us with joy and peace when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, and then we're filled with that good ol' Holy Spirit and then our "hope springs eternal."  Praise the Lord!


I've experienced the renewing of this hope...

IV and I had our hearts set on a little house in Shady Dale; I had big plans for a flower farm there.
However, the deal fell through, and with it my hopes and dreams came crashing down. 

Disappointment is just no fun, but the Lord uses all things together for the good of us who love Him (Romans 8:28), so I picked my chin up and trudged on.

Important side note:  This little house we'd wanted had a pink flowering crab apple tree on the property, and I'd been wanting one of the those.

Now, the house we live in presently (and have lived in for a little over six years) has a seemingly regular old yard, BUT this yard is actually always full of surprises...the Lord has used it more than once to restore my joy and hope, and He did it again this morning.

As I was walking around gathering any decent bloom I could find in the yard to make a bouquet for a friend, I happened upon this:


{I went ahead and added that verse to the image because I didn't want to forget what that little cluster of blooms meant to me.}  

It was just a sweet little love note to me from the Lord. 

It told me that He sees me, that He will fulfill the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4), and that He knows those desires better than I know them myself (Jeremiah 17:9-10).

This tree is something that I have been cutting down every year because I never saw it bloom, didn't know what it was, and it stood right next to this bush that always puts out these big, beautiful white blooms. 

The Lord saved that little crab apple bloom just for me, just for this moment.  
After six years of living here!

***Funny thing is, the big white bush was damaged by that late frost this year so it didn't bloom...leaving more LIGHT for the pink blossoms I suppose.***

The light dwells with Him (Daniel 2:22).
He shines it on us (Psalm 118:27).
He is the light (1 John 1:5).
And if we walk in this light we have that eternal hope through Jesus (1 John 1:7).

And in His time His promises will be fulfilled. And I'm not talking about promises of a house or a flower farm, I'm talking about the promise of His return and the promise of our eternity with Him.

He'll bring it right on time:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 
And then we'll be home.


Anyway, this is the Holy Spirit...

Restoring HOPE...

Rising up from flowers...

Springing eternal from the Spirit within me...

And coming down from the Father of lights. (James 1:17)

I love how the Lord uses something I love to show me His love.

And the grand finale:
I was driving to deliver the bouquet I'd made and this song came on the radio.


{It's one of my faves right now.}

So there I was driving down the road, holding a vase full of flowers in one hand and trying to resist the urge to stick my other hand through the sunroof in praise to my God. 
He's so good, and He truly satisfies.

Testify.


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