Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie. The story goes like this, in short, Andy Dufresne was wrongfully charged for killing his wife and thrown in jail. In prison he met Ellis Boyd Reading, “Red,” whose friendship changed them both. Dufresne, after serving for years, finally was “freed” from prison and follows his dream to live in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Then, Red was paroled and followed the instructions to follow his friend Andy to Zihuatanejo. Following Andy’s instructions, Red found a letter from Andy where Andy wrote on the hope of continuing their friendship on the beach of Zihuatanejo: “Red, remember: Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.” [Link to this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K30e9O3Nng ] For Andy and Red, the hope that they found shackled in prison would soar in the freedom of a beach along the ocean where the possibilities were limitless. It was a trusting relationship that would provide the greatest freedom and a real depth of love.
I once heard that ‘we hope backwards and remember forwards’. To hope backwards, we know where we’ve been so we can look ahead to the possibilities. To remember forwards, we take what we have learned in the days passed to make today as memorable as possible. In Richardson’s The Uncluttered Heart, we are challenged to be God’s partner in hope. God, who is our Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, was with us in our beginning, is with us in this very moment, and will be with us in the days to come. God has freed us to be in real relationship, with God and our neighbor. In this freedom, ‘hope springs eternal’. Let the possibilities of an uncluttered heart this season bring you to deeper relationship with God. “Remember: Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.” May it be so for you this Christmas.
I once heard that ‘we hope backwards and remember forwards’. To hope backwards, we know where we’ve been so we can look ahead to the possibilities. To remember forwards, we take what we have learned in the days passed to make today as memorable as possible. In Richardson’s The Uncluttered Heart, we are challenged to be God’s partner in hope. God, who is our Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, was with us in our beginning, is with us in this very moment, and will be with us in the days to come. God has freed us to be in real relationship, with God and our neighbor. In this freedom, ‘hope springs eternal’. Let the possibilities of an uncluttered heart this season bring you to deeper relationship with God. “Remember: Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.” May it be so for you this Christmas.
