Earnest Expectations
Every so often I have a student with the first name “Hope” in my Bible class. Unfortunately that student’s new nickname will be “Earnest”. I know every little girl’s dream is to be called “Earnest” and so I try to fulfill that dream. Of course I know that is not true so I at least make it “Earnest Expectation” every day for the entire year. There is at least a reason for doing this other than my natural desire to give people a hard time. The reason is to drive home the definition of biblical hope.
As an Alabama fan, I hope we win. I know our rival fans roll their eyes at that statement as we have won a lot over the past few years but I still get nervous. As a high school football coach for years people would ask me if the team was ready and my response was “We are about to find out.” I coached long enough to have teams prepare all week and seem ready to win and flop. I coached long enough to feel like the team was totally unprepared and win. You just never know until it is too late. That is the kind of “hope” our culture is saturated with. So my nickname for my students named Hope is my feeble attempt to redefine what it means to hope.
I was reminded of this earnest expectation last week when “God put a rainbow in the cloud” following a storm that blew through our little town. It was the most vivid rainbow I have ever seen. It looked like it touched the earth right behind my neighbors house. My daughter’s reaction when I informed her there was a rainbow in our backyard was worth the possible pot of gold that might have been right over the ridge. She leaped from her bed and ran down the stairs to see the beautiful bow and name the colors so perfectly traced in the sky. She was drawn to it by its beauty. My prayer is she will be captivated by its meaning just as I am. The longer I live the more the rainbow means. The more I recount mistakes I’ve made the more I’m reminded of the grace God has shown through his symbols and his people.
At least for me the rainbow fulfills God’s purpose for it. It serves as a great reminder of God’s mercy and patience. The statement in Genesis 6:9 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” causes me to pause. This is among a few other bible verses make me contemplate. Was Noah righteous like God is righteous or was he just more righteous that anyone else at the time. One is a really high bar and another not so much considering that “all flesh had corrupted their way on earth” (6:12). Whichever option it was, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” (6:8). Through Jesus we all have found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Go read Romans 5 and then think about Noah and his immediate family. You may have heard the phrase “guilty by association”. What we have exampled in Romans 5 and in the benefits of being in Noah’s immediate family is that we are often “innocent by association”. We are not given a lot of information on the nature of Noah’s wife, sons and daughters-in-law but they are allowed to enter the ark and survive. We get a little peak at one of Noah’s sons after leaving the ark. Before casting too much shade at his immediate family I’m reminded of my “innocence by association” to Jesus. An association that Jesus chose first. A bond so strong that I earnestly expect to hear Jesus say “Well done thou good and faithful servant” to me a sinner who wouldn’t know what “good” or “faithful” looks like without his example. Jesus has done all the heavy lifting. So the least I can do is live with the earnest expectations that he will do what he says he will do. When I live in the light of that hope others will take notice and will become “innocent by association”.
Travis
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Psalm 51:12-13 ESV