In my last post, I wrote about faith.  It was my intention this time to write about hope, but I realized that faith and hope are as closely linked as cause and effect.  I have faith in the redeeming capacity of love, and I have hope that we are all capable of love.  But are they really separated enough to try to differentiate them?  Marriages are based on faith in each other, and hope for the future, but they are almost inextricably linked.  How do you talk about one without talking about the other?

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman who wanted someone to perform her wedding.  It was a very short timeline, just a few days between the initial contact and the wedding date.  She and her fiance had made plans for a big family ceremony in the fall, on her parent's pumpkin farm, but on the spur of the moment chose another day for a small, intimate wedding with just a couple of close friends.  The reason for the change in plans was because the wedding date that they had chosen was the birthday of the bride's daughter.  She sent me a picture of her daughter, who had died eleven years ago, and would have been thirteen years old on her mother's wedding day.

I can't imagine the pain of losing a child.  The very thought of it is like a black hole yawning in front of me, swallowing everything that comes near it.  Yet, out of that pain, out of that empty abyss, she created a new life.

She told me that it was the memory of her daughter that had given her the strength to continue her life and bring something good from the tragedy of having a child taken from you.  Her grief inspired her to start a non-profit organization that provides support services to children and families who have suffered the loss of a family member.  It was the death of her daughter that gave her the realization that she could live a life based on love, and not fear.  And it was for that reason that she chose her daughter's birthday to marry the man that she loved and wanted to spend the rest of her life with. 

I can't think of any better testament to hope than that.