My younger daughter, Jude, is still on a bit of a high having got to see Gary Barlow at the Phil on Wednesday. She had been unsuccessful getting tickets, but refused to give up. She took herself down to the Phil on Wednesday morning and waited...Amazingly, 4 tickets were returned - second row in the stalls! - so she could go with 3 of her friends (who will love her for ever!). And that's not all: during the warm-up act they realised the seat next to them was empty. A quick visit to the box office, a phone call home, and her friends' mum was able to dash down and join them, just in time for the main act! It just goes to show if you want something badly enough there's a good chance it will happen - though not always, of course.
For Jude this was a triumph of hope. I ask myself, at the start of the year, what I hope for. My Bible reading yesterday was from Ephesians 4. In v.1, Paul describes himself as 'the prisoner in the Lord'. Not, we notice, 'prisoner in this cell' or 'prisoner in Rome'. As the commentator says, 'this reflects his sense of where the whole sphere of Christian living takes place, with his imprisonment to be seen as no exception.' Paul's hope is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, an historical certainty, which opens the door to a new creation.
What do I hope for? So to live 'in the Lord' that everywhere I see the potential for blessing and renewal. And help it to happen, by God's grace.
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