Hope: The Singers of Life by Kim Reisman

Scripture Focus:

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Hebrews 10:23-24 (NLT)

This month we will focus on the theological virtue of hope. Faith and hope are intimately linked in the Christian way. The anthropologist, Loren Eisley, has written some perceptive and challenging commentaries on life form his observation of nature. He provides a dramatic picture that points us toward Christian hope. One day he leaned against a stump at the edge of a small glade and fell asleep:

When I awoke, dimly aware of some commotion and outcry in the clearing, the light was slanting down through the pines in such a way the glade was lit like some vast cathedral. I could see the dust motes of wood pollen in the long shaft of light, and there on the extended branch sat an enormous raven with a red and squirming nestling in his beak. The sound that awoke me was the outraged cries of the nestling’s parents, who flew helplessly in circles about the clearing. The sleek black monster was indifferent to then. He gulped, whetted his beak on the dead branch a moment and sat still. Up to that point the little tragedy had followed the usual pattern. But suddenly, out of all that area of woodland, a soft sound of complaint began to rise. Into the glade fluttered small birds of half a dozen varieties drawn by the anguished outcries of the tiny parents.

No one dared to attack the raven. But they cried there in some instinctive common misery. The bereaved and the unbereaved. The glade filled with their soft rustling and their cries. They fluttered as though to point their wings at the murderer. There was a dim intangible ethic he had violated, that they knew. He was a bird of death. And he, the murderer, the black bird at the heart of life, sat on there glistening in the common light, formidable, unmoving, unperturbed, untouchable.

The sighing died. It was then I saw the judgment. It was the judgment of life against death. I will never see it again so forcefully presented. I will never hear it again in notes so tragically prolonged. For in the midst of protest, they forgot the violence. There, in that clearing, the crystal note of a song sparrow lifted hesitantly in the hush. And finally, after painful fluttering, another took the song, and then another, the song passing from one bird to another, doubtfully at first, as though some evil thing were being slowly forgotten. Till suddenly they took heart and sang from many throats joyously together as birds are known to sing. They sang because life is sweet and sunlight beautiful. They sang under the brooding shadow of the raven. In simple truth, they had forgotten the raven, for they were singers of life, and not of death.

Nature’s Witness to Christian Faith

This is nature’s witness to the truth of the Christian faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, his life, teaching, death, and resurrection, makes us “singers of life, not of death.” Remember, at the heart of faith is trust. We not only trust Christ, we trust God who gave the Son for our salvation, who raised him from the dead, and who has, even now, “raised us to newness of life.” The resurrection of Christ is the sign of hope that all God’s promises will be vindicated.

Scripture and Hope in Times of Suffering

Our Scripture passage for today points to that hope. This has special meaning in relation to our sorrow, disappointment, pain, and suffering. In the resurrected Christ, we know that the power of the “old age” is doomed and “new creation” is already appearing. As Christians, we’re called to make all our life, and especially our suffering, an act of self-giving love. That’s what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. The cross, defined Jesus’ life and, therefore, it defines ours. And yet, the cross always carries with it the promise of resurrection.

As Christians, we are in Christ, and we share in Christ’s risen life. The divine energy which first took Jesus out of the grave is available to us – not only to raise us from death at our journey’s end, but to empower us to grow up into “the full stature of Christ” now.

It’s a matter of faith, and faith is a matter of trust, and trust gives us hope. We are singers of life.

A Call to Reflection and Renewal

As you pray and fast, reflect on a time when hope was your sustaining source. I pray that your reflection would be a cause of renewal for you, providing you with deeper trust and greater hope.