A Fragile Moment of Hope
Today’s message comes from a book I picked up at the library during a lunch break one afternoon. I was so moved by this one story. It really created within me a new kind of hope. I pray it will do the same for you.
“A Fragile Moment of Hope” by Josephine Jensen
The sun had not yet risen as I walked alone along the beach. The night’s high tide had left the beach strewn with debris. A seagull, which once had glided in the blue, lay lifeless on the sand. Matted seaweed, once a living part of the deep, was now discarded by the waves. Driftwood, too, once green and growing, lay in silver-gray desolation.
Tears welled in my eyes. Those tragic bits and pieces, broken and still, were reminders of something in my life which had once been vibrant and alive, but now, too, was dead.
I slumped on the sand and closed my eyes. How long I sat there I do not know. Then a child’s shout rang across the beach.
Two children were running down the beach. As I looked up, they stopped. They had found the seagull. For a moment they stood silently around it. Then they dug a grave with a piece of driftwood, buried the bird and placed shells in an elaborate pattern on the mound.
With a whoop, they then dashed to the seaweed. Draping it around their waists, they wiggled their hips and, in their imagination, were in Hawaii. A long tendril became a jump rope. In each newfound object there was fresh discovery.
Everything they looked at, I had looked at. Yet while I saw only death, they saw wonder and excitement.
I rose and started home. A fragment of Scripture, half forgotten, came to mind: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…” (Philippians 3:13).
The rays of the rising sun flooded the hills. The same became a thousand diamonds, and I walked on them. It was the beginning of a new day.
Philippians 3:13 encourages us to forget what is behind and reach forward to what lies ahead. Panic attacks and fear can leave lots of mental and emotional debris in its path, making things seem lifeless and dead, but God encourages us to press on, forgetting those things and reaching for new things in our lives.
Prayer: Lord, help me to cast off all dead baggage that serves no healthy purpose. Help me to not look behind, but forward. Help me to understand that you are the God of hope. Lord, I will trust in you as we move forward from this day forward.
