Planting Bulbs...Planting Hope

My mother had a green thumb but it has skipped a generation and I have no ability to keep green things alive. I keep trying. I had pretty much decided not to plant any bulbs this fall, but I'm going to give it one more try and see what happens in the spring. The squirrels will do their level best to eat each and every one, but I'm still going to make the attempt. I hope that in the spring, when I've just about forgotten that I planted them, the bulbs will burst upward with color and vigor and surprise me with their loveliness!

Hope is a curious thing.

The dictionary describes it as expecting something with confidence or the search for a future good.

The Bible says Job placed his hope in the Lord, even if there was the chance he might be slain.(Job 13:15)

Charles Schultz once remarked, "A whole stack of memories never equal one little hope."

Mignon McGlaughlin said, "Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent!"

One of the great pleasures of my life is that I get to talk to lots of women. I just love talking to women and the more I meet, the happier I am. We have a lot in common, these girls and I. There are some things in our lives that are big and scary and sometimes there doesn't seem to be a really good answer. Sometimes there seems to be a big brick wall that is keeping us from having what we hope for...a happy marriage, a healthy spouse or child, a better job, a restored relationship with a family member, a dream realized....the list goes on. Sometimes it seems that we're never going to see brighter days and we feel like giving up, throwing up our hands and calling it a day.

We must remember hope. Like those bulbs that are placed in the dark cold earth, hidden from the light and tucked away, we need time. The Lord is at work in our lives and in our hearts and will do His good work in His good time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We might feel buried under layers of darkness, thinking nothing good will come from our situation, but just wait. The sun is going to shine again and when it does we're going to stretch up our arms to a loving God and be grateful for what He's done.

So, I'm going to plant my fall bulbs like I've done so many times and I'm going to wait. The squirrels will do their best, but spring is going to come and the flowers are going to bloom and I'm going to be glad I planted those little nuggets of hope.