When great sorrow occurs and what we love is cut down, in that place of deep and unimagined sorrow, hope is always present waiting to be revealed. At first, hope is difficult to see while we stand together before the stump of someone or something that was once alive but is now gone. In our shock, we feel paralyzed searching for an understanding of the unimaginable. As we process our grief, the Lord will gently remind us that nothing in this life can be cut down so far that the seed of hope is removed when He is involved.
“But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed” (Isaiah 6:13).
American preacher Fleming Rutledge speaks of the “hope which is beyond hope.” Our idea of what to hope for is limited by our human horizons, she says. We think we know what we want, what is best, what will make us happy, what we need. The key that unlocks the hope beyond hope is the knowledge of God. No matter what the various spiritual experts tells us in all their various talks shows and best sellers, God is not a product of the human religious search. God is the One who was already there before we started searching for him. God is the One who will reveal great and hidden things which we have not known, things that we cannot devise or create. That is the door of the divine hope. The God who is powerful to call into existence the things that do not exist is also powerful to create hope where there is no hope, faith where there is no faith, and life where there is no breath …for this is the eternal God who raises the dead.
Thank God for renewed hope and the miraculous restoration and regrowth of “stumps”. The consolation of God’s covenanted revival and inability to forsake His bride is the focal point of our hope. Christ in us the hope of glory!
Yours in Christ,
Apostle Jonathan Khan.