As I was lying on a gurney in pre-op awaiting knee replacement surgery three days before Christmas, before the “happy drugs” were administered, I noticed a painting on the wall beside the gurney. It was rather nondescript, a field of blue flowers in a garden of rocks and trees. Pleasant enough, I suppose, but seemingly out of place for one awaiting surgery.
The artist’s name could not be found, but there was a small brass placard centered at the bottom of the glass in a gold frame that held a quote from 16th century reformer, Martin Luther. I must say I was a bit taken back to find a quote from Luther on a rather insignificant painting in a Catholic hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, but there it was…
The quote read, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” I pondered that thought in the midst of my current circumstance and wondered who else might have seen those words over the years, lying in this same spot, waiting for something that could be life-changing. It was most assuredly my hope, and still is, that my surgery would change my life for the better. I try to keep that hope in mind with every step I now take with my walker…
As a good friend said many years ago, “Hope is a choice,” and she was right… Pandemic, social and political unrest, concerns for the environment, personal health issues, lingering grief all can cloud one’s perspective. Yet, there is hope.
Luther’s words remind us that hope can fuel our future. Paul writes in Romans 5:3-4, “This doesn’t mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys—we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us.” (Phillips)
Seems to me the apostle Paul and Martin Luther are onto something here. Hope is not the idle dream of pure fantasy, but faith and trust that God works in the midst of it all and can empower our steps whatever may come…