Surprised by hope

Surprised by Hope

Surprised by Hope is the name of a well-known Christian book; and it perfectly sums up what happened this week. As many of you will know I have a grandson, Eli and he is just 5 years old. However, recently a spectre has overshadowed his innocent and perfect world of fun, games, and sweets. That spectre is death! At first it was nothing more than his pet hamster, who was quickly replaced; but sadly, this was followed by a family member, not so easy to replace. The other night whilst watching TV we came across Clarkson’s farm; it was the episode with the piglets. In-between covering Eli’s ears and explaining that he was to ignore and not repeat the bad language, several new-borne piglets were pulled out of the pig-pens dead. Their mothers had inadvertently rolled over on them, killing them in the process. It was very emotional, and the lady holding the cute looking but very much dead piglets sobbed heavily. Eli looked at me with both a sad face and a heavy tone in his voice saying, “they are dead aren’t they.”  All I could do was agree with him. Later, on his way out, Eli suddenly said, “Jesus’ cross.” Jesus is cross, I answered? No, Eli said, “look it’s Jesus’ cross”. He pointed at a ceramic Crucifix we picked up in Spain, which now lives in the front hall. Eli continued “but he isn’t dead, he came back didn’t he”. Yes, I replied. Eli continued “Does he come back to life every day?” Yes, I replied, He is alive for evermore. It was at this point I noticed a different tone in both Eli’s voice and demeanour. I can only call it the beautiful tone of Hope. Jesus had overcome death! Here was someone who had beat the system, and it brought Eli hope. He doesn’t understand how this truth applies to him yet. However, whichever way you look at it, the fact that Jesus had conquered death brought Eli hope, the spectre of death was no longer so scary, and the dark cloud seemed to have a silver lining. I found myself pleasantly surprised by Eli’s newfound hope, whilst revelling in my own much older hope. The mantra, resurrection changes everything, ran through my mind. But I shall leave the last word to 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”