Signs of Hope

‘Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November 

All the rest have thirty-one

Except for February 

Which has twenty-eight days clear

And twenty-nine each leap year.’

This is not to be confused with the nonsense rhyme passed down in our family:

‘Thirty days hath September, April, June and no wonder

All the rest ate marmalade

Except for Grandma’ and she rode a bicycle.’

February is a great month, for the darker days begin to grow slowly lighter. But as a galanthophile, I delight each year in the appearance of hundreds of snowy-white, green tinted, delicate flowers which emerge down my long, sloping garden. Snowdrops fight their way through the harshest of our northern winters, dangling their flowerheads from tiny, thin stalks. No wonder then that the snowdrop has become a symbol of hope. 

Everything might seem to be dark and gloomy, with life as hard as frosty ground and yet there is a place where hope is found, bringing life and beauty where there appears none. But that place is not in nature. Rather, the empty tomb, wherein the crucified Lord Jesus was laid, is testimony to the fact that Christ suffered and died; then three days later He rose from the dead. Jesus had declared previously in the presence of those who were sad and grieving:

 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26

‘There is a hope that burns within my heart,

that gives me strength for every passing day;

a glimpse of glory now revealed in meagre part,

yet drives all doubt away:

I stand in Christ with sins forgiven,

and Christ in me, the hope of heaven!

My highest calling and my deepest joy,

to make His will my home.'

S. Townend and M. Edwards (2007 Thankyou Music/Capitol CMG Publishing/Integritymusic.com)