Hope

My Papa died almost exactly a year ago, this week.  I came to the realization yesterday that even if I could have him back and fully restored, I wouldn't.  Because he's infinitely, unimaginably better off where he is now.  And that's not simply a wishful thought to help me deal with my grief - it's an example of what it means to live by faith.  I'm realizing that when the Bible instructs us to live by faith, it means that we are not expected to live in full knowledge at all times, nor will we ever be able to put all the puzzle pieces together and find full meaning here.  Because, we don't have all the puzzle pieces.  Some of us don't even know what the puzzle picture is supposed to portray.

Therefore, faith becomes not a thing to have but a way to live.  Every day.  Faith restores hope, and gives meaning, and comforts us in the dark, and shines a light (sometimes bright, sometimes fleeting) on the path ahead.  Though you can't see faith, you can feel it, and once you have it, you'll trade anything for it.  Like the man who stumbled on the treasure in the field, and sold all he had so he could buy that field.  I see why it's worth more than gold.

Jonathan Edwards once said something that makes me think of Papa, and of this journey we Christians are experiencing:

The bad things will turn out for good,

The good things will never be taken away,

And the best things are yet to come.