The boy without hope …

When my family sat down for dinner, there were 10 people at the table.

Two adults, and eight children.

That’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed!

Yet we always had just enough to eat. The food would be placed on the table and then someone would start passing it. There was enough food for everyone to have one portion of everything that was served. There may not be enough for seconds, but there was enough for each person to be adequately nourished.

Unlike dinnertime when I was a kid, there seems to be something needed as much as food that some people simply aren’t getting enough of today.

The item in such great lack is hope.

On my drive home today, I heard a news report broadcast on a local radio station about how a 12-year-old in this area hanged himself earlier this week.

How bad does life have to be for a boy just a dozen years old to be in such despair — to be so emptied of hope — that he would hang himself?

Apparently, some weren’t sharing hope with him.

As children of God, there is something precious, something powerful, something vital to the human soul that we have in abundance, and that is hope. As children of God, we know the One true source of hope; His name is Jesus Christ.

“We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield,” Psalm 33:20.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit,” Romans 15:13.

From the riches of hope that you have in a living Savior, are you sharing that hope with others who are starving for just a nibble of hope in their lives? What are you doing with the hope you have through Christ?

Scotty