I read the verse over and over again, not making much sense of it: ⁵ Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you (New English Translation). Eventually, I take a pen and write it down.

Slowly the meaning becomes clearer.

According to this verse, hope is the foundation of faith and love. Hope is the thing that energises us, motivates us, pushes us to believe and love. Therefore, we cannot really love and believe without a foundation of hope.

When I look around me and see a world falling apart, where very little love can be seen, and actually only lovelessness, a light bulb is switched on: There is no foundation of hope.

All of us, you, me, the whole of humanity, need hope. Without hope we’re all hopeless. Yes, that is what we see around us: hope-less, because hope’s been pushed out the back door.

You see, we not only pushed the hope of heavenly things out the back door, but also opened the front door to hope for worldly things. Yes, I hope to get a better car or house, or a better government, or a better spouse, whatever.

Unfortunately, worldly hope has a weak foundation, leading to nothing good. It doesn’t motivate you to believe and live love. On the contrary, it’s totally selfish – which is why the world is what it is today.

And what is hope? Titus 3 has the answer: ⁸And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.

Our hope is focused on the day when we leave this earthly life for eternal life. Then we’ll meet our Saviour. Then we’ll get rid of this suffering human body and we go forward into eternity where feast upon feast awaits us.

Yes, that’s what makes me so excited! It makes me sing, despite present suffering. It motivates me to find places to live love even in dark times. But more than that, amongst all the unbelief and doubt I can and will believe again.

We entrust our whole being to the here and now. It’s understandable, because this is where we are living now. But this life is but a grain of sand compared to the life coming hereafter, a life with no end date. Let’s hope again for life hereafter. Let’s make an effort to build a foundation of hope, because then faith and love will follow automatically.

Scripture

Colossians 1:1-8

Reflection

Do you live love?

Do you believe?

What does your hope look like?

Prayer

Lord, o Lord. How awesome You are to give us hope. Please help us to hope for the future and not to stare blindly at the things here on earth. Amen