Nicole’s e-Pistle
April 30, 2025
Greetings, Friends!
Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer, and if there is anything our country needs today, it is prayer. If you happen to go to the website for this annual day of prayer (https://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/2025-theme), you’ll see a prominent icon displaying this year’s theme: “Pour Out to the God of HOPE And Be Filled.” However, what caught my attention was the imagery of Jesus in a white robe with a blood red heart (like the one the Tin Man got from the Wizard of Oz). In the image, Jesus is carrying a white shepherd’s staff and a flaming sword while riding out of Heaven on a white horse, an army of white horses thundering behind him.
This brings up a lot of things for me. First, of course, the imagery comes from the book of Revelation 19:11-14. However, the theme for this year is from Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The artist for the theme’s artwork is from the UK and says that after a great deal of fasting and prayer, she sobbed and shook while painting what God showed her to paint. In her perspective, this is what HOPE looks like – the reign of God and the return of Christ. It is a beautiful painting… and…
I wonder if we as Christians tend to retreat to one of two camps when life becomes scary, and the world seems to be in chaos around us. To put it in secular terms, some people put their heads in the sand and hide from what is going on around them while others roll up their sleeves and get to work. In the world of faith and theology, some people look ahead to the eschaton, or end times, as a way of finding hope that all will be put right in the end and every tear will some day be wiped away, whereas others roll up their sleeves and get to work, almost as if saying, “Well, God is taking his dear sweet time (if indeed there is a god at all), so it’s up to us to clean up the muck.” Now, I know those are two extreme poles on the spectrum of where most people sit theologically, but tough times have a way of pushing people to extremes, unfortunately.
I do not read Revelation literally… mostly… and yet I find myself looking to the clouds at times saying, “How long, O Lord, before you come back and fix this mess?” I imagine how it might look if the sky did literally tear open and Jesus were to ride like thunder and wind out of the heavens with his army of righteousness trailing behind… Then a bird flies past my gaze, and as I watch it land on a tree branch, I notice people moving about their daily activities and remember that God’s kingdom is not in some futuristic utopian existence – it is right here in front of us. The God of HOPE lives and breathes among us right now, and while I look forward to the day of Christ’s physical return and the end to all sin and evil that he will bring, I do not want to miss the opportunity to find hope and beauty and love in this life. The world needs it… and that is something worth praying for!
Blessings and peace,
