We all love to look at pictures, don’t we? Whether flashing across our Apple TV, computer screen or in an album, seeing them makes us smile. Each one containing the memories of special people and places that mark our lives, telling a story that transports us back in time.
In the same way a good number of the objects in my house also tell stories. It’s what makes them special, and earns them a prominent place in our built-ins and table tops.
Like this shell…
My husband and I found it on the bottom of the ocean in the Cayman Islands on our honeymoon almost 18 years ago.
And this collection of turtles…
reminds me of my college friends whom I’ve previously written about that are called “The Turtles”
This baby figurine…
It was given to us by our elderly neighbors before we moved away. They had watched our kids grow, knowing the boys from infancy. As pre-schoolers the boys loved to barge in to their house straight to the candy dish. The wife is now deceased and the man has moved in to a nursing home. But just seeing that “baby” on my shelf conjures up stories and memories of that dear couple.
Oh and there are so many more; I could walk you through each room of the house and tell you about the stories behind the things you see. Same with the ornaments on our tree. Ornaments that just a few years ago I hid on the back of the tree and even left in the box, I now see how they outshine even the most beautiful Radtko ornament because of the stories and memories behind them.
And this ball…
It’s not an ornament, but is Christmas inspired. Inspired from one of the devotionals in Ann Voskamp’s Greatest Gift Christmas Advent book that I can’t stop talking or thinking about.
On the eleventh day of Advent the reading came from Joshua 2 about Rahab. It’s the story of two spies sent to scope out Jericho. The prostitue Rahab agreed to hide them because she believed the Lord had given them this land. In return for the safety she provided, they promised to deliver she and her family when they came back to conquer the city. As the sign to all their men she was to tie a scarlet rope out her window so they would know not to harm anyone in that household.
Voskamp points out that “Tikvah” is the Hebrew word for rope and cord. This same word means HOPE.
Rahab threw out in to the darkness that rope of hope, trusting in the Israelites to come back and rescue her family. This rope was their only lifeline and her hope did not disappoint. Rescued from that dropped line, Rahab becomes the mother of Boaz and mother-in-law to Ruth, who bore Obed and from him Jesse to King David leading this family line directly to Christ…
The One who bled scarlet as our sacrifice. The One who is our true Rescuer. Our ultimate HOPE. The only One we can truly cling to, even when it feels like we are just barely hanging on to a CORD. It is enough. This ROPE of HOPE promising He will be our Rescuer, Redeemer, Stronghold, Fortress, Refuge, Friend and Savior.
So I created my Hope Rope ball (in the likeness of the Ballard Designs rope doorstop) to serve as a tangible reminder of the story of Hope we have in Him, always.
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