I loved naming our children. It brought Andi and me delight to think of what we should name our kids and why. Someday I'll write something on their names (Caleb, Ben and Abbey). While praying with a grieving family the night before last, I thought of how significant a name could be. As I was praying for Freddie and Hope, I got stuck on her name. Let me explain.

My freshman year in college, now three decades of winters ago, I met Fred Ricker. We fought it out for the starting basketball job in the opening game. I lost. Freddie started. He is an affable guy with a quick wit and a boatload of fun...and a jumper that was pretty good back in the day. He was dating a sweet girl named Hope, who was the sister to my friend and one of Cedarville's great all time gym-rats, Keith Kirby. Freddie was also the dorm barber who had a knack for feathering our hair on a thin-out-trim that had them lining up for the bathroom barbershop in Freddie's unit. It was always worth a half-hour of good conversation. Freddie left us after a year and went home...and parlayed that bathroom gig into the most famous hair styling shop in Northwest Ohio. Hope was always fun and had a cute giggle that was infectious. God gave Freddie a sweet girl and a tangible expression of His grace when Fred married Hope.

Hope is from a great family, as is Freddie. Hope's happy Dad with his round pleasant visage came to follow Jesus with his dear wife and they gave themselves to church planting home missions work in their days. West Virginia, Alaska...wherever God took them, they loaded up and went along...heralding the good news with great joy. Hope was the last gift of a group of children God gave to the family.

Hope is that embedded virtue that God loads into our core that drives us through life. Life was retooled on that first Easter morning-much greater than any Copernican or Kuhnian revolution. The empty tomb brought a whole paradigm shift to a weary world listing from the curse of sin. "He is not here, He is risen, just as He said." Matthew 28:6. We began to see what the apostle Paul said when he quoted Hosea and asked about the whereabouts of the sting of death (I Corinthians 15:55). The hope of what will be is, as one friend of mine said recently, like an atomic bomb of certain resolution that has gone off in eternity, and we, yet in anticipation, can feel its sure reverberations in time. Hope is importing to our present reality the substance and experience of what is going to be...ahead of time. It is warehousing what will be before we ever get there. We are saved in hope. And hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). Hope is anchored to the integrity of God and his promise (1 Peter 1:2-4). We have an anchor for the soul (Hebrews 6:19). It is not tethered solely to a life unencumbered by tragedy and grief. Hope is durable. It does not flinch in the face of suggestions of its absence. I am sure Pastor and Mrs. Kirby were celebrating "Hope" when their much beloved sweet girl was born. I thought of hope as I prayed on Wednesday night.

Right as we were sharing in our Christmas Eve worship here in Springfield (a service in which I quoted the one who said, "We live in a death impregnated world."), the Ricker-Kirby family was summoned to the scene of an accident in Northwest Ohio. A stop sign run, a father dead and his son's girlfriend, Freddie and Hope's dear Hollis, gone as well. The family was alerted and came to the accident site. Presiding there was grandpa, Pastor Kirby, now eighty years old. The onset of the shock of the whole matter began. As I write, three days later, dear Freddie and Hope are finishing a six-hour stint at the funeral home receiving the masses who will wrap their arms around them in affection, before tomorrow's funeral at the high school.

Along the way this vibrant seventeen-year-old headed to Cedarville University after graduation had come to savingly believe in Jesus. From that point, she lived with hope and died with hope...suddenly in the accident. Her mother, Hope, was at the tragic scene of the wreck. Fred and Hope had to identify their daughter. Uncle Keith and Aunt Becky had come over to share the news with us the day after Christmas.

As I began to pray with them I thought of Fred and Hope and their girls. As I mouthed Hope's name in crying out on her behalf, I was struck. I am praying for Hope...for Hope...for one who all of her days answered to the call of "Hope"-a girl whose parents named her with such a noble moniker. Hope. The well spring for that virtue has its roots tied inextricably to that garden tomb from the first century. Yes, we can have hope...hope-even in the midst of the greatest of tragedies! Jesus lives and he has our hearts.

Hope does not deliver us from the tragedies of a broken world reeling from the effects of sin. Death and brokennesses abound, coming on both the houses founded upon the rock (relying on and obeying Jesus) and those upon the sand (those not relying on Jesus: Matthew 7). Hope in Christ delivers us through these experiences. We know that our Redeemer lives! At the last, and in our flesh, we shall see God! Job 19:25-6. The house on the rock stood firm.

Upon receiving the news that her husband (Jonathan Edwards) was dead, Sara Edwards wrote these words to her daughter, "What shall I say? A Holy and Good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me to adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart." To whom shall we go? John 6:68. Jesus has the promises of eternal life.

And so there is "Hope", a grieving mother in Northwest Ohio and a tangible reality that is a part of the birthright of everyone who has savingly believed in Christ. In a subtle yet important way, through the wisdom of her parents, "Hope" has been spoken in a name in that family, unwittingly, as a reminder of the legacy of Easter. Jesus is the Victor who brings us to Hope!

"For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." Romans 8:24-25

Thank God for Bethlehem that led inevitably to Hope. "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Hebrews 2:14-15

Dear Father, wrap tangible expressions of your presence to help in hours of need all around Freddie and Hope tonight. I love them, but your love for them radically eclipses my own. Pour your love out and pour it upon them. Come near in the midst of their brokenness. Thank you for the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Joy to the world

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Joy to the world...the Lord has come...and is coming!

"and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain, the first things have passed away." Revelation 21:4

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethern, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope." 1 Thessalonians 4:13