Growing HopeSample

When my husband and I were newlyweds, we lived in a house with a small patch of dirt in front of the porch—once a vegetable garden.

We decided to choose beauty over substance and scattered wildflower seeds until the dirt was smothered in tiny gray and black dots. Then we watered and waited.

Morning after morning, we checked for signs of life. Nothing.

We worried. Had we done it wrong? Thrown down too many seeds?

What we couldn’t see was that before life came, death. Every seed had to rot before it could sprout.

God, the ultimate Gardener, echoes this metaphor throughout our lives: growth takes time, patience, and sometimes, death first—the death of a dream, a relationship, a job, or an old way of living.

It’s in surrender that hope grows beyond human understanding.

Reflect

• Is it difficult for you to give up control and let God lead?
• Can you recall a time when you surrendered and God did something glorious?