Hopes and Longings

https://odb.org/MY/2022/11/24/hopes-and-longings

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12). We all have our hopes and aspirations, and the older we get, the less confident we are of seeing them come to pass. Sometimes, it is just a hope and desire for someone we love to be on a normal path, but he or she chose the road least travelled. Sometimes, these hopes are our dreams that we have left buried like the Shunammite woman in the time of Elisha (2 Kings 4:8) who had lost her hope for a child as her husband was already old.

Our hearts could be sick when our hopes are not fulfilled, and yet, with the passage of time, we have learnt to accept the reality of our situation. Time heals, they say. But if the hope or longing is fulfilled, it is a tree of life. Something that could last us for eternity as the expression, “the tree of life,” is the key to eternal life at the Garden of Eden before the fall. Indeed, hope and longing fulfilled will make our heart settled and happy, particularly experienced by people who had found their soul mates and life partners consummated in marriage. Or if we have found that the thing we do is really what we have been made for, that sweet spot of who we are and what we do in life merging as one. Or we are right now fulfilling God’s plans and purposes for our lives.

Like the Shunammite woman, God can restore a lost hope. In that story, Elisha prophesied to her that she will have a child somewhat in return for her generosity in providing him a permanent place to stay whenever he was in Jerusalem. God rewards our generosity to others, and sometimes, this could mean resurrecting our dead dreams and hopes, our buried longings and aspirations. We are seeing that unfolding right before our eyes, even as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is at the cusp of fulfilling his hope and aspiration of finally becoming the Prime Minister of Malaysia after being the PM in waiting since the time of Dr M.

Like Anwar, God can do the same for us if not now, one day. Just continue to do what we do best for Him. One day, the LORD will reward our labour of love. Amen