Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 (NIV)
He Keeps What He Says
The laundry in a hospital basement runs while the floors above it sleep. Sheets come down by the cartload, and two people in gloves sort them before they go into machines big enough to stand inside. They can tell which floor a cart came from by the tape on the handle, and neither of them will ever meet anyone who slept in what they’re washing.
Some of the people this letter went to had quit showing up when the others met. The writer tells them what they’ve got: a great priest over the house of God, and a way in that Jesus opened through his body. On that ground he asks them to hold on to the hope they’ve professed, and to hold it without swerving.
I whistle when whatever I’m waiting on is late. I’ve been told I do it, and I don’t hear myself start.
Holding without swerving is a lot to ask in a long year, and the writer asks it anyway, with the reason attached. He who promised is faithful. God keeps what he says, and he keeps it through the months when holding on has gone mostly to habit.
They’d said this hope in front of other people, and in a long stretch it comes down to saying it again: words meant on a good day and repeated on the rest. A hope resting on the faithfulness of the God who made the promise is safe to keep through a tired week, and through a year that doesn’t improve.
In the basement one of them drags a cart in crooked and the other takes the far end of it, and the next load goes in with the tape still on the handle.
A Prayer to Remember
Lord, it’s late and I’m holding on to something I can’t see any movement in. I said I had this hope. I still say it, some days meaning every word and some days out of habit. You’ve never broken a promise yet. Steady my hands on it until morning.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
