Hope gives us the ability to see the color of grace.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
Psalm 103:2 New living Translation

There’s not a great deal of color around Colorado this time of year, even if the border sign reads, “Welcome to Colorful Colorado.” When there’s snow, it’s white. When there’s no snow, it’s brown. Even the evergreens are tinged with brown. It’s easy to forget that flowers once bloomed in our flower beds, vegetables ripened in our gardens, and leaves quivered in the wind.

January has been a bleak month for many people and it is easy to lose sight of God’s grace.

Whether it’s the after effects of the election, the cold days, or short nights there’s plenty of anxiety producing events that affect our lives. These events keep us from seeing the color of God’s grace.

Though we might not see the evidence of grace, the Holy Spirit fills us with hope that we will one day see the beauty of God’s loving kindness.

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved.”
Romans 8:23 New Living Translation

We all go through periods when our lives reflect the color brown rather than the Portland Rose Garden in June. Paul writes that we, like creation, groan until that day when we’re released from this bondage of a world of brown. We live in the hope that we will enjoy the manifold colors of heaven.

Even though we might not see the color of grace today, grace is the foundation of our hope one day being in the presence of the Lamb who was slain for us.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner