So much is written about the virtues of faith and love but hope seems to take a backseat to the other virtues. Yet, hope is all about God. To think about God we really need to expand our minds. We use analogies to talk about God but these are only hints as to what God is like. God is like a parent but people all over the world have different experiences of a parent. God is love but how do we define love in today’s society? God is all good but what is our understanding of goodness? God is all powerful but definitely beyond our understanding of power.

Sometimes we begin to catch the immensity of God when we stand on the shore of a large lake or ocean and look far beyond into the distance or look at the stars on a clear night and think of far reaches of the universe. The birth of a newborn, this tiny miracle is absolutely awesome. Think of the natural beauty in our world. We have the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls which inspire an awareness of a greater power. Yet, anyone of these experiences is only a minute fraction, the smallest hint of who God is. God has a greatness we will never understand.

When we contemplate this God, and realize this wondrous God loves us, we begin to understand how powerful our gift of hope can be, the gift we received at Baptism. Hope is an extravagant expectation of everything, because God exists. God is everything and God loves us.

Don’t just put your hope in God. Give thanks that your hope “comes from” God.

                “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of HOPE” 

Jeremiah 29:11  

Art created by Sister Lynne Anne Schimminger, FSSJ