What is the color of Hope?

Is it, perhaps,  pink? I wonder, on a morning when skies all around me shine pink: north, south, east, west…

—when the air itself looks pink, in clouds skimming earth?

I think of this later, when a phrase rises from my Bible page—a series of phrases, really:

            “you… wait for His Son from heaven,

            whom He raised from the dead,

            even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Th 1:10).

They waited. In expectant hope. Souls glowing pink with hope.

And down through years, centuries, others have waited, in expectant hope.

And we wait…

Although we are a people not friendly toward waiting, who want it all now — or yesterday, whose patience tends toward short, and whose expectation rests too much on the concrete predictable.

Why didn’t He tell us When? When He would return. He said only the Father knew, but why didn’t the Father reveal it?

The first Advent candle people have called the candle of Hope. The second, the candle of Preparation. And what needs preparation more than our hearts? And how will that happen but for the quieting, the expectation settling hope in our hearts, the possibility warming our minds, that it could be in our lifetime?

Quieting today, in hope and expectation, thinking on His first Advent, looking toward His second, considering all those waiting together from first till second, down through decades and millennia. Waiting in pink expectant hope…

knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of creation.”

For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth…

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 

Therefore, …what manner [of persons] ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?

…we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 

and consider [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation

-2 Peter 3:3-15

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For what [is] our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? [Is it] not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

-1 Thessalonians 2:19

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10 thoughts on “The Color of Hope

  1. And thanks for visiting and commenting here, Sheila. A beautiful Christmas season to you and yours!

  2. We do have hope, but the Biblical hope which means confidence. The earth declares His majesty! The scoffers are the willfully ignorant. Remembering it is our Father who gives every breath to every living thing every second of every day. His love endures.

    Great pictures. I love that one with the fog traces in the cool morning air… That looks like the beginning of a story. We know how it ends… just not when…

  3. Beautiful softness and light in that cotton candy pink. And hope rising. I used to love to draw from Joan Walsh Anglund’s little books of poetry and this reminds me today of her “What is the Color of Love?” Different words and thoughts, yet the same God of majestic art upon our hearts. Blessings, Sylvia!

  4. Such good words of rock-solid truth, Floyd! — about our *sure* hope, with no foggy uncertainty about its fulfillment, only about the when. Thank you for them!

  5. Hi Pam,
    Thank you for your kind comment. I was uncertain about publishing all this “pinkness.” It did seem a bit too much like cotton-candy. But that “pink air” that day really got me going, and I couldn’t help relating it to our beautiful hope. 🙂
    Blessings!

  6. Oh, pink is such a beautiful color – especially when He paints it on the clouds! Thank you for these thoughts. There really is such hope!

  7. My little granddaughter’s favorite color. 🙂 (I ought to show her these pictures and tell her about our Hope…)

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