Signs of Hope
Have you ever been walking down the street in the city and noticed these random sprouts that come through the sidewalk? I mean, you are walking down the streets of Atlanta, surrounded by cement and pavement and yet there will be these little green sprouts coming up! It’s always amazed me how certain plants (and weeds) can seem to find a way to grow anywhere. And then you cut them back and it just grows again.
When we lived in Pasadena, California, some of these would come up and they would end up being small trees; they would get larger and larger, until they broke the cement and tore up the sidewalk. You can walk down the sidewalks of Pasadena and there will be a huge palm tree there in the middle of the sidewalk! They find a way to grow…working their way toward the sun!
God said, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse….” Hope…a sign of hope. The shoot wasn’t what anyone thought it would be. It wasn’t what we expected. He was such a fragile little thing…a small shoot coming up in the cracks. A baby lying in a manger. So small, so innocent.
But that shoot …it grows. And it continues to grow in each of us. There are places where the shoot breaks through in our lives. It’s fragile. It might seem out of place. We’ve been told that it shouldn’t be there and to cut it back. Don’t cut it back. Allow that hope to push through the hardness of your own heart. Tend to the little shoots that come up, reaching for the light.
Just like those little green shoots coming out of the sidewalks of Pasadena…signs of life, those shoots bring hope. Cultivate the hope in your life and keep looking up!
In the Hope of Christ,
Pastor Caroline