Hope Heals In The Midst Of SufferingSample

"Forging hope in our picture of heaven"

{KATHERINE} Years ago, when I was still in brain rehab, I excitedly told my therapist we wanted to write a book to give others hope. The tragic reality of brain injury is that few people rarely return to basic functioning, much less something as mentally sophisticated as writing a book. Since I’ve been raised to new physical life, Jay and I believe God calls us to bring Christ’s hope to those with broken brains and broken hearts.

What I display on the outside is what we all feel on the inside. The apostle Paul tells us that when we know Christ as our savior, we have every hope for our “inside” and “outside.” “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us…. So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, and we look not to the things that are seen but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal,” 2 Corinthians 4:7,16-17.

At the end of Joseph’s life, he makes his brother’s vow to carry his bones out of Egypt and place them in Canaan, the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the Exodus, Moses made sure Joseph’s bones were brought along, and Joshua saw that they were buried in Canaan.

Even then Joseph’s dreams were not fully realized. It is our savior, Jesus Christ, who accomplishes his glorious purposes for Joseph: the final rest, the final home, the final family and the final pain-free bodies we are all promised when we have faith in Christ.

In Luke 24:44-49, Jesus explains that he is the fulfillment of all of scripture, of every promise and every hope. He is the ending of all that Joseph began - saving a people from death in famine - while Jesus goes further to save his people from death in judgment.

Joseph reconciled a broken family, as Jesus finally reconciles us into one, eternal family. While Joseph suffered, he carried out good deeds to bless others. While Christ suffered on the cross, he atoned for our sin and achieved forgiveness and blessing for us that never ends. As you suffer, you can give others hope that Christ is bringing us to our eternal home and glory.