With the start of 2005 we have 365 tomorrows stretching out in front of us. Shakespeare had something to say about tomorrows in the mouth of Macbeth, when he said:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death, Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told my an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Pretty hopeless stuff, isn’t it? Nothing like what a Christian has to start off the New Year. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow for the believer is a horizon-less hope. Paul in Ephesians 1:18 gives a prayer that Christians may have “the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which God has called you…”

Hope for the Christian is not to be thought of as an uncertain feeling of mingled longing and misgiving, as when we say that we hope it will be a fine day tomorrow, knowing that it may well be nothing of the kind. Christian hope is a glad confidence in good things to come. It is sure, not tentative. This hope refers to the certainty of life in Christ–a hope that is the human emotion of expectation directed against fear and anxiety over the 365 more tomorrows of this year.

In Ephesians “called” means that God takes the initiative. We simply respond. Our calling is the basis of our hope. Once we know we are called by God we can confidently hope for the future. We do not know what this year will bring any more than anyone else. What we do have over nonbelievers, however, is genuine, gorgeous hope.

John Hughson

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