Hope in a Chest

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is a strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame."- Song of Songs 8:6

Dear Reader,

Spring Break I would say has "officially" started for me. I am also glad to say, that I can (somewhat) call myself no longer GPS dependent. Although only a straight-2-hour-shot from college back home, trust me, it was an accomplishment to do so with good ol' printed off directions (and discovering "street view" on Google Maps was a revelation to me).

Sitting in my room back home, I suddenly became in a state of not knowing what I was thinking or wanting to do. I knew I wanted to do something...but I could not pinpoint what exactly it was. For whatever odd reason, I thought of my hope chest. The one thing I did not ever even think of bringing to college with me, and never will. What was funny about it all was, I nearly forgot I even had one. Why it decided to suddenly cross my mind was beyond me. I walked slowly over to my nightstand and opened the wicker basket woven doors. There it was.

I opened it not knowing what to expect. Oh, all of the things that needed to be added to it since I last looked in it! It felt like a freight train had hit me when I was sifting through cards from my eighteenth birthday. I found a card from my grandmother. I thought I had the last one, and yet in this little hope chest there was another jewel from her life. The deeper I dug, the harder it became. It was a few moments later when I unfolded a stapled stack of five or so pages with my name signed on the first. As I began to thumb through them, I saw the words, "By the time I'm 19..."

I froze. This couldn't be "one of those lists." What list was this? As I read the words before me I was overcome with shock and amazement. It was more than a list of "I want to go skydiving" or "I want to eat at a five star restaurant". This was a list of dreams...things that were out of my control, that would involve some serious life and heart changes to take place to happen. When I reached the end of what I wanted to happen "by the time I'm 19" I heard the kindest voice say something along the lines of:

"I never forgot about this..."

I felt it so strongly upon my heart that it felt like just what that verse above reads. A seal upon my heart. A protective, loving, covering over everything that I treasured DEEPLY down within me that over time I had allowed to be clouded over, had been there all along. I am 19 now, and as I read over the list, each and every thing had transpired that I had written down. It was none other than God Himself. I'm sure He knows (obviously) by now that His daughter has quite a poor memory. The hope chest I hadn't thought about in ages, but one thing He showed me was this:

When He says He knows our innermost being...the fact that He created those innermost things...He sure means it. And even if you or I tend to forget those things that we cherished most, no matter how small they are, He never forgets them, just like He so graciously reminded me of tonight. There was such an overwhelming flow of love coming out of that hope chest, from Him, into me crying out, "There is SO much more to go and add to this."

If that small little box holds eighteen years worth of desires and goals and dreams, imagining what else could be put in there over the next who knows how many years is a mystery to me. The one thing that matters is, just as a seal He protects each and every one,

and He remembers and cares for them all.

God Bless,

JB

Oh, and why THAT picture? The view would be incredible to see right about now :)