We never even heard our new next door neighbor's machine in our yard. But I looked out the front window later and the driveway had been cleared. Later we looked out the front bay window and could see the pretty face of the young daughter of our neighbor across the street as she cleared our sidewalk and front steps. Later, our son Paul and grandson Stevie shoveled the huge mountains of snow in front of and on the sides of our car. The immense generosity of our God was filling the hearts of so many people around us, and then flowing out of them in loving actions for us!
If only I trusted in God more, spoke to Him with confidence and love, and then rested patiently, waiting on His timing, how much less anxious about the future I would be! If we hope in God, we are confident about our futures, about our lives here on earth, and in heaven, because we trust in His merciful love for us and in our love for Him. "And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us," says St. Paul. (Romans 5, 1-2. 5-8.)
God's Holy Spirit awakens hope in us by reminding us both of Jesus' words and works for us - His death on the cross - and God's mighty works for us which have already taken place in our lives. God proves His love for His people over and over, through His mighty deeds for Moses and the Israelites, through His Son Jesus humbly laying aside his divine power and becoming one of us, to suffer and die for us, and through God's merciful actions in our own lives!
I have seen God's loving works in my own life. When our son was suffering and dying with brain cancer, when my Mom was suffering with dementia, when my daughter had her mastectomy, when relatives and friends were hospitalized with mental illness, when I thought I could not handle another thing happening to our family and friends, I called out to God "I can't get through this! How can I get through this!" And the Holy Spirit reminded me of all the ways in which God has manifested His love for my family, friends, and me over the years. God's love had brought my family and friends into this world. God's love had surrounded my loved ones through the love which had entered their lives through their friendships, jobs, marriages, and children.
Do the ways of the Almighty change? Never. I knew God loved us. I knew we loved God. God's ways are beyond all of us to know or understand. I had to let go of my fears and anxiety, let go of how I would have handled these crises, and trust once more, hope once more, in God. Trust in His love which gives us life now and gives us life through and beyond death. Trust that the God-given love that we have for each other would empower us to support each other.
We can always hope in God. Hope will never disappoint us, because God will never disappoint us. When we take the long view of our lives, when we really look attentively around us, God's love surrounds us every minute of our days and nights, in big ways and in small ways. In neighbors who, unasked, clear snow from our driveways and walks. In kind nurses, like the ones who kept taking me to the bathroom while I was waiting for the Doctor who would "do" my colonoscopy. In new love that enters the life of a bereaved widow or a bitter man recovering from a bitter divorce like the advent of sunny Spring. In the God-given strength and compassion we receive so that we can spend hours holding the hand of a dying loved one. In medications which allow people with mental illness to leave hospitals and begin their lives anew.
Like the neighbor who plows our driveways, unasked, unseen, our humble God usually remains hidden. But He's with us for life and beyond. If we allow the Holy Spirit to flood our hearts with love - love for God and an acknowledgement of God's love for us - hope and confident trust will fill our conversations with God. "I trust in You!" we'll whisper - and our hope will not disappoint us.
"Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal His merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age." (Psalm 100