In a brief news clip about the pandemic’s toll, a mom with her three little boys was standing in front of her home’s “for sale” sign. “Julie knows what insecurity is,” said the newscaster. “She’s lost her husband, her hair salon, and now her house to this pandemic.” Then Julie said seven words I’ll never forget: “I’ll be secure. Because there is hope.” End of clip.

I would’ve loved to have heard more from Julie. What was her basis for believing that? I wondered if she’d read this God-promise in the Bible: “You will be secure, because there is hope” (Job 11:18, New International Version). The peaceful look on her face said to me that her hope was deep, anchored in certainty, not a pie-in-the-sky wish.

Hope is frequently thought of as merely a human wish list, sometimes selfish—an “I hope this pandemic ends soon so malls can open” kind of thing. Or a positive-thinking, “hope of the human spirit” thing. But if that’s all it is, then it’s liable to human variables. Iffyness or randomness. It could even fizzle out.