What does Hope look like?

What is hope? Hope can be defined as the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled; a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.  Hope is what can get us through the day, through the times of hardship when things looks bleakest.  The Bible gives us several examples of hope.  John 3:16- For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  This is a great example of hope.  Hope looks like eternal life through Jesus Christ.  In Exodus the Jews are being held in captivity as slaves.  Things are bleak, things are at their lowest point so far for the people of Israel.  Then God sends Moses and Aaron and they demand that Pharaoh let their people go.  At first it seems like things are still bleak but the people have hope that Moses and Aaron through the will of God can convince Pharaoh to release them from captivity.  Then after several plagues the people of Israel were led out of slavery in Egypt.  Hope looks like deliverance.  Noah was approached by God and told to build an ark, and to take into that ark two of every type of animal on the earth along with his family because God was going to "blot out from the land the people I have created--people along with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."-Genesis 6:7. But God saved Noah, and He saved two of every creature on the earth.  After forty days and forty nights of rain and then several more months for the waters to subside Noah opened the ark and let everyone and everything out to the dry ground.  Hope looks like redemption in God.

There can also current instances of hope.  When my wife and I first tried to get pregnant we spent two years being unsuccessful.  We went to some of the best doctors in the country who all told us that barring a miracle or using fertility drugs we would not get pregnant.  We took it to God, through prayer and left it in His hands.  Now we are expecting our first child in just a few weeks.  For me Hope looks like new life.  Peace and God Bless.