My Hope is in the LORD

This morning as I read my online devotional by Elisabeth Elliot,
Hope Is a Fixed Anchor, I was reminded that it has been 15 years (tomorrow) since my paternal grandfather died of cancer. When we first found out that he was terminal, it was unreal to me. I was 19 and still had all of my grandparents alive. The only loss I could really remember was my mom's brother, Errol, who died in a truck accident in his 20's. Other funerals were for people that I really didn't know very well. So, when he got sick and my Nana needed help, I postponed college to move in with them for awhile...to help them hope and pray for a miracle.

Since Bobby, as his grandchildren called him, was not a Christian man, this hope for a miracle had to come from someone else. It was heart-wrenching to watch the deterioration of this man who was once so solid. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. He was not a tall man, but his presence was big wherever he went. Now, he was shriveling before my eyes. He didn't have any hope for a cure...but I held out for as long as I could.

While he was sick, he had time to reflect on his life. He had made some rough choices in his life & was seeing that there must be more. He began to let people talk to him about things that he never would have opened his eyes to if he hadn't been dying. My step-dad, Bernie, took it upon himself to speak the gospel to Bobby. He would pray with Bobby whenever he had the chance. Bobby died on January 3rd, 1991, a child of God, full of hope for eternity.

Now that I have looked back over his life, cancer was not what he needed to be healed of. Because of his cancer and the time it gave him to think, he was able to receive the gospel and see that Christ was the only way to heaven. I don't think he would have heard that with an open heart if he had not been face to face with death like he was.

The hope that saved him was not the hope for physical healing. It was the hope that once his life on earth was over, grace alone would allow him to live eternally in perfect peace. A miracle came...just not the one I started out hoping for. The miracles that came were more meaningful than anything else...the transformation of a sinful heart, undeserved grace, peace, and forgiveness.

This new year is full of hope and promise. The things I hope for are in God's hands...not man's. Let us draw nearer to the heart of God as we hope for the promises He has made to His children.

"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God" (Heb. 7: 19).




****i had to change the link to Elisabeth Elliot's devotional. For some reason, it is no longer on the original website.