Wednesday, February 23, 2011

esperanza

Some you know that I really love the Spanish language.  I'm not even close to fluent.  In fact its a bit of a stretch to call myself conversational even.  But I have had some fun opportunities to learn Spanish in my life and at times will even look to read some familiar books or the Bible in Spanish just because!  One thing I love about reading in Spanish is that Spanish words can offer word pictures that are really interesting and give a deeper understanding of a words meaning.  The word 'esperanza' is a good example of all this.  esperanza translates as hope in English. But the cool thing about the Spanish word esperanza is that it comes from the Spanish verb esperar which means to wait.

Some dear friends of ours recently experienced a great loss.  The last month we have been trying our best to make sense of things.  We have been watching our friends grieve.  We have been watching them teach their kids how to grieve.  But the most significant thing we have watched our friends do through it all is 'esperar' or hope.  They have waited expectantly on the Lord.  Hebrews 11:1 says "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  Our friends have been living this verse in front of us, in front of their kids, and in front of our community.  It has been such a testament to their faith, and such a testament to how good it is to be close to a God whom we can really trust.  In God we can hope, we can wait expectantly for Him in all things, both good and bad.

My friend told me recently that God has led her to place where she can actually be grateful for her loss, even though she of course does not like it.  And now I think I am finding a way to be grateful for it too.  I can be grateful because with their example, I know that I can face whatever tragedy or loss God allows in my life with this same kind of expectant waiting.  Real Hope.

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