The Courage to Hope

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

 

   “Mig, for her part, continued to stare. Looking at the royal family had awakened some deep and slumbering need in her; it was as if a small candle had been lit in her interior, sparked to life by the brilliance of the king and the queen and the princess.
   For the first time in her life, reader, Mig hoped.
   And hope is like love . . . a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”

Indeed hope is one of the enduring virtues, the perfect gift for us on earth. In times of trial, the mere idea of hope has carried the underdog to victory against insurmountable odds. Through life-threatening illness, hope has lifted the spirits and healed the cells of patients given up to lost cause. Hope is a champion of the tragic and a companion for the depressed. It is the light in the tunnel toward which the dying soul travels and the magnetic pull by which the revived escape back to the living.

Hope is both a noun and a verb, active and passive. It is immeasurably private yet communal by nature. Unique to each heart that swells with it, hope is defined by every person who dares to imagine it.

            “Reader, do you think that it is a terrible thing to hope when there is no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since, in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?”
                                                ~excerpts from The Tale of Despereux by Kate DiCamillo

Have courage.  Never give up hope, reader. The Lord will provide, and you will be blessed.

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.