What is your great wish? What do you hope for? What do you hope for your family, your friends, your children, for those close to you, and even for yourself? Health? A lifetime of happiness? Security? Yes, me too, those are all good things, happy things, fine things to wish for.
I
often hear (and even say myself) "I wish you all the happiness
in the world" or "I hope for a lifetime of happiness for
you, you deserve it!" I am pretty sure I have written that many
times in an engagement or wedding card. But when you dig deeper,
think a little harder, is there something more? Something more to
wish for, a greater hope to have than just "happiness."
I
thought about this the other day as I heard a song, a song I have
heard many times before, and love more and more every time I hear it.
I thought about well wishes....do they ever come true, like
completely come true forever? I am wishing people
happily-ever-afters, but do those exist? I am not denying that there
are moments, days, weeks, even years maybe of happiness for people,
but when I look around this broken world what I see are people who
have been hurt by others, broken by sin and selfishness, drowning in
a sea of their own choices, living in a way that feels defeated,
conquered, and I ask why? I am not asking why are there hurting
people or why are bad things happening to "good" people. I
know that answer...because we live in a fallen world...a world where
sin has entered in and effects us all, and I mean ALL. I am asking
"why" do I wish happily-ever-afters if they can't really be
obtained? Is it because I don't know what else to say? Is it because
I really am hoping, despite that it never happens, that a friend of
mine will actually go through an entire life without hurt or pain?
Maybe it's because I watched too many Disney movies growing up...and
all of those princesses had happy endings....or so it seemed.
Speaking
of those princesses, the movie always stops right as she catches her
prince...it never goes beyond that. Do those princesses ever get
sick, cry, or die?? Of course not...because it is fantasy.
It
is not my attempt in this post to compare how our lives will never
measure up to those of a Disney princess...that would be somewhat
depressing. It is however my attempt to remind, reveal, challenge, or
even share how though our lives on earth will always have pain and
suffering, we can have that happy ending...that forever love...that
complete bliss...through Jesus. When I think about what my wish or
hope really is for those closest to me...it is not for a life-time of
happiness, but for a foreverness. My hope is that you will live
forever...
Not
forever in a fairy tale or in this world...oh no, but forever in
a perfect world with The Prince, The One who loves you more than you
love yourself. My hope is that even though no one actually deserves
it, we would live forever with our Creator.
I
do not wish for you a set of rules, I do not wish for you a new or
old religion, I do not wish for you to clean yourself up or for you
to "get it together." I wish for you a relationship with
Jesus...because Jesus isn't a set of rules, Jesus isn't good behavior
or behavior modification, Jesus isn't a religion, He is a person, and
He is the greatest hope anyone could wish for.
It
is my greatest wish, my greatest hope in life, that we share forever
together!
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