The Tide-Turning Power of HopeNäide

One typical way of telling Job’s story is to say a man lost everything, had hope, and got back even more than he lost. I’ve come to resist this version of the story, though.

It strikes me as almost callous to consider that as a story of victorious recovery. After all, what can replace the loss of ten children? Newer children?

His children never came back to life. Job did not recover what mattered most in his life.

It may be uncomfortable to see the unresolved pain in this story, but it brings us right to the heart of hope—even in pain and despair, hope flourishes.

With Job, I could not wrap the ribbon around the box and present a neatly finished package. The hope that Job truly discovered must be more than “he got things back after he lost them.”

What was it that Job discovered that enabled him to thrive through pain? And what can we learn from it for our modern-day lives?