Hope is like a butterfly.

It flits here and there in a seeming erratic path—to where? I can’t tell in the beginning; each start and stop of its flight seems so disconnected. Recently I learned that the erratic flight of a butterfly is a function of how they fly—and actually protects them from predators.

My thoughts are drawn to I Peter 5:8.

“Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.” (ESV)

Butterfly hope gives the lion nothing to pounce on. A roar, a leap, and hope has flitted on in an unexpected flight that could not have been predetermined. Hope lives on.

In a way, butterfly hope is my story, and perhaps yours—bemused by the conundrums of life. We look at the erratic flight of our lives and wonder, how did we get here?

Hopelessness, disillusionment, despair, disappointment, and more seem to keep us chasing after some illusive answer—and the more we try to figure it out, the more muddled up we become. We begin to feel disconnected and wonder where our hope is. Nothing makes sense.

In the midst of the tumult, comes the still small voice…

Be still and know that I am God…
He spoke to the warring nations
He spoke to the raging sea
He speaks
To me…

Suddenly, hopelessness, disillusionment, despair, and disappointment are nothing more than the lion roaring, preparing to leap. But hope darts out of the way and remains safe… that is the nature of the hope based in an eternal God and His unbreakable promises. Just as we can’t change the nature of a butterfly—it’s path will always seem erratic to us while it flits in safety onward, upward, and home—so is our hope.

Hope appears at the unlikeliest of times, as we grieve the loss of a loved one, as we struggle through a dreaded illness, as we are pushed to forgive far beyond the seventy times seven initially asked of us.

“and hope does not disappoint…”
                                                                          Romans 5:5 (NAS95)

That is the nature of real hope…

“because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
                                                                                 Romans 5:5 (NAS95)

In today’s world where terrorism, ugly politics, corrupt morality and the daily challenges of just plain living roar at us like the devouring lion, more than ever we need to remember our blessed hope. It may seem erratic at times, but don’t give up… real hope is what will take us higher until at last we reach home, our hope realized, our joy eternal, the devourer defeated.

“He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope…”
                                                                          2 Corinthians 1:10 (ESV)