Hope Starts by Looking

Bob Williams wanted to do something totally radical and untried. In 1995, he wanted to point the Hubble Space Telescope into an empty part of the Big Dipper’s handle. Everyone, and I mean everyone, said that there was nothing there, so why waste all that money and valuable telescope time?

Williams was not shaken through. “Scientific discovery requires risk” he said. “If it’s that bad, I’ll resign. I‘ll fall on my sword.”

So, with his reputation and job on the line, they pointed the Hubble to where everyone said there was nothing. For 100 hours, the space telescope gazed into the empty darkness. The images were processed and released to the public 17 days later.

As it turned out, all that “nothing” was jam-packed with more than 3,000 galaxies! Overnight, our understanding of the universe blew up. What everyone knew to be true was toppled, turned upside down. There were a lot of red-faced, embarrassed experts who had to rethink what they believed and taught because one guy wasn’t afraid to look.

Maybe this is where you find yourself with hope. You stare out into the silent, dark emptiness of hopelessness. And everyone’s telling you that no one’s out there. No one’s listening to you. No one's interested or watching you. No one's reaching out to you. There's no one to love you.

That’s why the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is so huge!

In his great mercy, God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

1 Peter 1:3

Did you catch the three key phrases?

• Great mercy – not a little bit of mercy. Not just some mercy, but a whole truckload of mercy.

• New birth – a birth that takes us from where we are and makes us new. A new person to live a new life.

• Living Hope – not just some hope, or some hope we must cook up by ourselves. No. a hope that’s living. It’s vibrant and leads to a flourishing life.

Perhaps it’s time for you to take a risk when it comes to looking for hope.