Last thoughts on 'Hope'

So here we are at the end of our year long series on HOPE…..we have looked at God the origin of our HOPE, Jesus the reason for our HOPE and the Holy Spirit the source of our HOPE and we have been researching for signs of HOPE in our world.  In a year when it sometimes feels like the world has gone crazy it has been a great and healing process to find so many stories of HOPE where people have risen above tragedy and disaster to make a real difference in people’s lives and in our world…… Here are a couple more such stories… 

You may well be aware that the Natural History Museum recently replaced its famous diplodocus called ‘Dippy’ with a giant blue whale skeleton.  You may not be aware that this new 25.2 metre mammal is called HOPE or if so why it has been so named.  The Museum purchased the skeleton in 1891 from an entrepreneurial Irish sailor who had found her beached and sold off every single part of her.  This was in an age where whales were easy prey for the resources they supplied us with… Blue whales are now making a recovery following decades of exploitation that nearly drove them out of existence.  QUOTE from the NHM “the name HOPE was given as a symbol of humanity’s power to shape a sustainable future”.  “She is a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the responsibility we have towards our planet”   

And then there is this amazing little Greek island called Tilos….. with a population of only 800 it looked at the boatloads of refugees travelling the dangerous waters to freedom in the West and instead of saying ‘not in my backyard’ they welcomed 50 asylum seekers in to make their homes and their livelihoods on their small island….. generously offering people a HOPE and a future… Not only that but this forward thinking island is also set to become the 1st Mediterranean Island to be solely powered by wind and solar energy. The entire island is a nature reserve and is known as Greece’s Green Island.  The current lady Mayor is quoted as saying “usually it’s hard for a tiny island community to break with tradition, but on Tilos we’ve always welcomed alternatives…. if we can do it, anyone can.” 

And so we come to our last thoughts for the time being on HOPE…….

I was helping on the Storm allotment the other day and planting seeds in pots and was truly amazed at how tiny each seed was and yet realising the amazing potential inside each one….. all that amazing DNA locked away waiting to be released and to bear fruit…. in this case beetroots, cabbage, parsley, lettuce, fennel….  

The same is true for us… we may feel small and insignificant, maybe even a failure but inside us is all that HOPE waiting to be released.  We just need to be willing to be planted in the right place and see what God will do… my last photo is a sunflower that got planted in a pot in Storm’s poly tunnel by mistake… we thought it was a cucumber!  But hey look what one sunflower seed can achieve in the right environment!!  There is always HOPE.