To Be Alive is to Be a Person of Hope

To be alive, to be here, now, is the greatest gift of all. Life is so full of joyful and thrilling moments that we would never want it to end. And when the inevitable sad and difficult moments come, people still intuitively know, feel, yearn and hope that there will always be comfort after the affliction, laughter after the tears, joys after the sorrow, and yes life will go on forever.

Yet, for all the beauty and the blessings of life, it can also be tenuous and fleeting. Life is all too soon gone. It could be snuffed out so easily by an illness, by an accident, by another, and, in the end, by age. And people wonder if there is anything at all after death.

What if all our hopes for eternal life and everlasting happiness were but vain and baseless desires and aspirations? What if there is nothing at all after we finally close our eyes? What if we are but a fleeting presence in an otherwise magnificent universe? But then again, how can such a magnificent universe be in existence if only for a fleeting moment of life? How can such strong hopes and inspirations be planted in our hearts without them being realized? How can all the goodness and love that people are capable of be entirely gone when they die? How can the stirrings in the human heart be but the beating of muscles had they not been placed there by the Creator Himself?

I place my hopes in the promises and revelations of the Lord.

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
~ Psalm 1

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Luke 16:19-31