Before Hope Arrives

“Sow your seed in the morning... for you do not know which will succeed...”
Ecclesiastes 11:6 (NIV)

A friend asks if we want to meet for lunch. Nothing about the invitation is difficult, yet we leave the message unanswered while we wait to see whether we feel more interested later. The same thing can happen with a small project, a walk, a conversation, or an idea that once would have caught our attention. We are still keeping appointments, answering messages, and doing what needs to be done. Life is still moving, and so are we. Still, have we begun waiting to feel more interested, lighter, or even a little hopeful before allowing ourselves to take part in more of it?

That kind of waiting can look sensible. The delay feels reasonable because we haven't actually said no. We are only waiting for a better moment. An ancient line from Ecclesiastes describes a man watching the conditions before he plants. “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4). The wind and clouds are real conditions, and anyone planting would notice them. Yet even while he watches them, the seed remains in his hand. The conditions have not said no. They simply have not given him the yes he wants. When did feeling ready gain the power to decide whether we say yes?

Feeling ready may be deciding more than whether we say yes. We may also be asking today's feeling to tell us something about tomorrow, even though Ecclesiastes names things no amount of watching can fully explain. “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things” (Ecclesiastes 11:5). Wind moves beyond our tracing, and a child forms beyond our sight. Both are real even when we cannot see everything that is happening. A moment with little interest, energy, levity, or hope may be real too. It is information, but not a forecast. Nothing here guarantees what comes next. Yet possibility has returned without denying what we feel.

Possibility doesn't suddenly make us ready. Morning may arrive with the same questions, and still, “Sow your seed in the morning” (Ecclesiastes 11:6). By evening, the questions may remain, and still, “let your hands not be idle,” because “you do not know which will succeed.” Again, and again, and again, the questions return, but so do we. They have not disappeared, yet they no longer decide everything that happens next. We answer the invitation, take the walk, spend a little more time on the idea. Each is a small yes given before the questions are settled. We still don't know what comes next.

Perhaps we have already decided what renewal should look like, with more energy, clearer direction, or something familiar returning. Yet Ecclesiastes leaves the outcome wider than that, “whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well” (Ecclesiastes 11:6). Maybe what God provides is not a return at all. It may be something new, through companionship, purpose, laughter, renewed interest, or something we have not recognized before. Then tomorrow does not have to resemble yesterday for renewal to be real. Maybe there is still more ahead than we presently know how to anticipate or even ask for.

Prayer

Father, keep me open to what You may provide today. When I cannot know what comes next, help me respond faithfully and receive what You give in the time and way You choose. Amen.