Hope

People captured and exiled have not been far from our news this last year. Exile robs you of a sense of future or hope. Jeremiah spoke these words to the several thousand Israelites who had been carried captive to Babylon. He tells them that their return will not be that speedy but nevertheless God is with them, is ultimately in control and above all is for them rather than against them whatever they may feel like.

So, for us when life is far from working out as we expected and we feel abandoned by God or even that God is against us, the truth is the opposite. The God who in Jesus comes to share our very life with its suffering and its joys is always the God of a future and a hope for us.

For those of us in a place of potential despair today these words of promise are a source of comfort and hope. For all of us it is an opportunity to reflect on past hopeless times which actually resulted in a future and a hope, and an invitation to pray for all those in any form of exile at present.