Hope as Light

Revisiting a five-year-old design is an interesting process. The Original design of the hope journal had been done hand in hand with my friend who taught me to design journals, so I called on him again. When we looked over the original design, we found that it did not work anymore. The color, the words the concepts. Most of them did not work anymore. So, we started to pull it apart, element by element. We found a focal point and then we started to work around it. First, we would have Skype calls with shared screens tweaking, shifting, and moving. Then, we did mini surveys and got back with our findings, and tweaked some more. In the end, instead of the one symbol of hope, we had two. A lighthouse and a flame. Both are sources of light.

The lighthouse

The lighthouse was always the original symbol of hope that we had on the journal. This imagery was so strong for me at the time because I felt like a ship lost at sea looking for some light to guide me to a shore. The way that a lighthouse is immovable has inspired many stories. One of the most famous being of a ship being told to move its coordinates to avoid collision and the ship captain refusing to change his coordinates. The captain had assumed that he was in communication with another ship, which could have easily moved its coordinates as well. But the voice on the other side informed the captain that it was not a ship but a lighthouse. In the end the ship captain moved to accommodate the lighthouse.

Several times I did the same. In the dark I have made plans that God has asked me to change, and I refuse to change insisting that He would have been the one to give me the plans in the first place. This of course was my error. I often projected my desires as if they were the will of God and in the end, I found myself in messes I would then blame God for. Being a Christian is hard, but God is gracious. So, a lighthouse became both a symbol of hope, and direction.

The Flame

The flame was originally not even going to make it, but for days I had an image of a flame/torch shining light in a dark cave or on a dark night. The idea of a torch made it more of a personal thing. A lighthouse is far off, you follow the light to guide you to shore, but a torch is personal and intimate. You hold it and it literally lights your path. A torch is smaller and it projects light on a small area. This is relevant because we go through life blind to the future. We can make plans and hope for those plans to come to pass, but we do not know what tomorrow holds. We often need that small light to show us where to step next as we navigate life.

This torch symbolizes a lamp unto your feet, lighting up the path as you go. Just like the psalmist says in Psalm 119:105 about the Word of God.

       Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Psalm 119:105

When we have no clue what to do next, what to turn to or which direction to take. The Word of God is a good source of direction and hope.

God as fire

The second level was how God is a consuming fire. In exodus God came as a fire but He did not consume the bush that He was burning on. Instead, He used this to draw Moses and speak to him. Jeremiah describes the Word of God as a fire shut up in His bones. This was an image to show that He could not keep still and just keep the Word in Him, he had to release the Word of God to the people He had been sent to. Another time Elijah calls on God to send fire from heaven to prove that He alone is God, and God came and consumed all, including the water.

n a way living for God is living as a torch, lit up but not consumed by the fire just like the burning bush that drew Moses closer. The fire in and around us should draw people closer to us, then like Jeremiah, when they come closer, we release the Word that He has burning inside of us. That we would know Him and make Him known. That we would truly be living sacrifices, with our lives consumed by Him, for Him and with Him in us.

For our “God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:29

Hope in Him

The hope that God provides is more than just a small light to help you see where to go, He also is the hope inside of us that does not disappoint. Whether life goes high or low, whether we are in the highlands or in the valleys. Whether we are in terrible working conditions, or hard places of unemployment and lack. In our deep and dark depressions or our highest celebrations. God is with us either way it goes.

 I finally launched the Hope journals on the 8^th of January 2021. One hope journal is Gray with a lighthouse theme. The other journal is yellow with a Flame theme. Both have verses of hope on alternate pages. They are now available for purchase on Amazon.ae.

Reference Verses

Moses and the Burning Bush: Exodus 3

Jeremiah and the fire in His bones: Jeremiah 20:9

Elijah calling fire from Heaven: 1 Kings 18:20-46