I have hope

If you live in Australia right now, I think you would have to be deaf, dumb, blind and comatosed not to know about these two men who are trapped in the mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Watching channel 9 tonight, I learnt that the countdown for them coming out is on: should be in the next 4-5 hrs (as I write this).
Why is it that I have an urge to stay up and watch them (with most of the rest of Australia according to Tracey Grimshaw) come out in the triumphant glow of overcoming all the 'natural odds' of what should happen when a mine collapses on you because of an earthquake tremor. The reason I'm glued to my TV set on a Saturday night? Hope...
We are creatures that long for the best. We long to overcome adversary and look for a fairytale ending. When tragedy befalls someone else, we long for it to be put right in their life so that we can be comforted in the knowledge that our pain too can be taken away when things suck for us.


I can not imagine the emotions that must be going through the minds of these two men, sitting in a 1.2x2m cage kilometers below the surface in the dark. What will it be like to have your first glimpse of Sunlight - to feel its warmth on your face for the first time in 13 days? To have your first touch of a loved one whom you thought you were separated from, possibly for eternity?
As a minister of the word, as a Christian, I can't help but draw on the illustration that this provides us for coming out of our sinful hole - remembering what is was like to be touched for the first time by the knowledge of the grace that the Son provides us we come into the light of salvation. So that's what I think - here is what I want: I want to recapture that sense of unlimited hope and joy in my salvation. I think that overtime we regress and start to go back down into the mine - we forget to head into the Light. Two verses to challenge me in my walk up out of the pits: Psalm 28 and John 1:1-12. Look them up.