Love Always Hopes

My algebra teacher showed us a video of his daughter, Anna, learning to walk. It was taken a little while ago in her beginning stages, and her three-year-old sister, Sophia, was trying to help her, but turned out to be just a cutie in the way, pushing Anna across the floor briskly without allowing her to take the steps herself. She face-planted numerous times, sometimes failing to take more than one step before falling. But she always got back up. Her daddy kneeled on the other side of her path, watching in excitement with a great big grin across his face. No matter how many times Anna fell, he knew that his baby girl would eventually reach his arms wide open to receive a congratulatory hug. I sensed he may have been experiencing a hint of frustration each time she fell, but saw an even greater joy, excitement, and hope fill his heart, overwhelming any feeling of desperation. He knew logically each time she stood up and began walking towards him again, that she could not magically learn to walk perfectly. "But," he thought, "maybe... just maybe she'll get it this time. Maybe she won't fall," and that was all the hope he needed to persevere in aiding his youngest along in her journey.

"[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

~1 Corinthians 13:7

My big sister Gabrielle wears a ring on her finger that simply reads the single word, HOPE. Although she and I have been close for many years, I had never thought to ask her about it because I (mistakenly) never considered what the story may be behind it. Recently, on a two-day visit to the apartment she now lives in with her husband 300 miles away, she openly dusted off a deep area of her heart, hidden in the crevices of her soul, and shared it with me, so that I too, could be fed.

"I'd read this passage [1 Corinthians 13:4-8] of Scripture so many times before, and I knew it was really talking about God, because God is love. So I was reading it once more, replacing every instance of the word 'love' with the word 'God,' so I could learn more about who God is. And it all made sense to me, you know, God is patient, God is kind. I knew that. And then I got towards the end, and I read, 'God always... hopes. What? God hopes? It didn't really make any sense. Hope implies not knowing the outcome of something." I started to subconsciously deny this verse, thinking well it didn't really mean hope. But she continued, "And then I thought of how a father hopes when he's teaching his kid how to walk. I've never experienced it, but I think it probably goes something like this: each time his baby starts walking towards him, he knows she's gonna fall. She's still learning to walk, and she hasn't at all gotten the hang of it yet. And she does fall. Yet every time she gets up, and every time he thinks to himself, "Okay, maybe she'll get it this time; she can do it," even though he knows she's gonna fall. But she falls again. And so it goes, hope pulls them both along, and eventually they meet together, face to face, in a loving embrace and true joy. I think that's what hope looks like to God. So now I wear this ring, you know, not because I believe in the act of having hope (though I do), but because I believe that God actually has hope in me."

That thought rings so beatifully true to me. That no matter how many times I fall, I have a reason to get up and sing and worship and be beautiful. Because my Daddy is waiting for me at the end of my path, rooting for me in pure excitement, lavishing grace on me with all wisdom and understanding (Eph. 1:8). People can help me, but really I have to decide to do it myself, because if I only rely on other people I won't learn how not to fall. When I finally get there, after thousands of face-plants and failures, He will kneel down to my level with arms wide open, and He will whisper in my ear, "Well done, love. I knew you could do it - I had hope in you."

"She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know."

~Sarah Dessen

this was taken about three years ago; the hope ring is on her thumb