Hope

I have always thought of hope as comfort one feels. Like an internal confidence in something or someone. An emotion. Lately, I have been so focused on not feeling hopeful that I forgot it means something else as well. Hope is not only a feeling but the object that grants assurance of that confidence.

For example, if a woman falls overboard on a ship she may have hope that she will be saved, but the life preserver thrown overboard is also her hope. You see, hope as a feeling and as an object.

I forget that too easily. That while the emotion may ebb and flow, as emotions do, the object of my hope never does. Provided the object of my hope is my God I have what the hymns refer to as a “Blessed Assurance” because “Jesus is Mine.” So like that woman struggling in the water, I can see my preserver floating closer to me with every wave. Even if I can’t touch it just yet the assurance of it’s coming comforts me.