Focus: The Leaf of Hope

Text: Gen.8:11

"And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive LEAF pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth."

The flood of Noah's day was immense and the ruins were heavy. It lasted for 150 days. But at a point in the whole sad experience, Noah sent out a dove to look at the weather and feel the atmosphere, and it returned with a sign of hope in its mouth - a fresh leaf plucked from an olive tree. That was a clear evidence for Noah that the flood was rescinding and life was returning to normal.

By the time Noah tried sending the dove again, it left and didn't return, and that served as a final proof that the whole trouble was over. Noah and his family survived it all. In fact, the testimony of Scripture is that "God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged" (Gen.8:1). Even now God has remembered you and has ordered His wind to move in and normalize things in your life. The fresh olive leaf was a clear message of hope for Noah. It tells us that regardless of how chronic some crises of life may be, they certainly will be outlived. You are built to outlast your troubles and traumas.

Paul's troubles were such that he penned, "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life," and from his journey-to-Rome experience, Luke reports, "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away" (2Cor.1:8; Act.27:20). But in the end, Paul and others surmounted the odds by the help and mercy of God. They finally arrived Rome. What killed Paul was not his trials and troubles, but his faith in Christ Jesus. He died for his faith and testimony of Christ.

I declare that there is hope for you in God. The odds in your life shall give way to a new lease of life. I join Paul to declare, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope" (Rom.15:13). Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter