HOPE actually came to me in three seperate dreams - or "visions of the night" - that all "fell together" one morning - as things sometimes seem to do with the Holy Spirit.
I was going through a really bad time and having lots of dreams... a friend had hurt me very deeply the night I had the final dream in which HOPE seemed to be personified - I was in a great state of loss and mourning actually and went to bed in great grief... God sort of swooped me up out of the situation and on into something else --- in the end, what began in a sort of betrayal ended up bringing me a wonderful gift...
My Christian journey began with dreams... so of course I listened intently to this one... and now, when ever I get down, I remember HOPE standing there at the foot of my bed... and I can always smile the same little smile... and carry on hand in hand with GOD and HOPE!
God showed me that HOPE is something that you hold inside somehow... something that you have to realize into being maybe... something that connects you to Him and Him to you... it is always with you, you just have to remember to look at her... her radiance makes everything look different...
HOPE (As recorded September 12, 1994) There dwells within my heart A Virtue. Her name is HOPE. She was Presented to me by The Master, Himself. A blessing beyond imagination! Unexpected and undeserved. She stands barefoot upon the Eternal Flame from which she emerged. Fully grown. Forever Radiant. Luminesce. Her eyes are of the clearest blue. Tendrils of hair the colour of cornsilk cascade around a face and neck so exquisite, so perfect, so pure as to be impossible to describe! Curling spun silk held by a circlet of gold around her crown. JOY! radiates out from her. Pure Joy. And LOVE! LOVE Divine! She is robed in a fabric woven with fibers of light shot through with golden threads. Beautiful HOPE. Healing and Wholeness. Omnipotence. Purpose and Meaning. Eternal Essence of Life. Presented by, in the Power of, for the Glory of, and under Authority of The Master Himself. She is a part of me and I a part of her, somehow. I cannot understand How this can be. And yet I know it to be true. Where one begins and the other ends, I cannot tell. Sometimes HOPE'S LIGHT ethereal shines through me. It is not me. It is not mine. And perhaps, it is not all her own LIGHT either. For she too, is a part of Something, of Someone much greater than we, mere mortals, can comprehend! I saw her first when she was but a babe. Perfection. Purity. Innocence. Beauty. A gift, she was. A GIFT like no other, and presented by, perhaps, The Ancient of Days Himself? or One of His Representatives? ...The Journey... I made a journey to A Special Place. Accompanied by a female companion as ancient and as wise as time itself it seemed. She hovered with great Love and care. Her mother heart knowing what lie in store for us. The peril. The danger. She would have willingly given her life for ours, I'm sure. I never saw her face. Hidden, she was, by a mantle of heavy cloth and dark. I never knew her name. Yet still, I felt I knew her well; Have always known her. Together we concealed the Blessed Gift beneath a cloak and in a cloak of flesh. But, alas, bound so tightly to my side, flesh on flesh, she perished on the journey homeward. No breath within her tiny frame when we arrived. A limp and flaccid vessel, empty of life was all we held. Her flesh was cold and pasty. Her features pressed askew, asunder. Pressed out of shape this glorious face! Her eyes like glass stared lifeless, empty, no spirit glow inside. Like clay she was, so cold and damp. Gray in pallor; Yes - like clay... so much like clay and lifeless. Heavy. Void. Her face I could not bear this way to leave. And tenderly my heart did move to touch to try to shape, to mold the face again into the beauty I had seen before. Restore as best I could the tiny face, the features. My eyes could not contain the sorrow. ...Defeated... Yet through Hands of LOVE LIGHT did return. The breath within the tiny BABE waxed warm and LIVED. She travelled far with me, this child called HOPE, across and through the years of time. Only vaguely, was I aware of her small presence there, through tests and trials that came life's way. Yet, She was there. She was always there deep within my heart. She was my HOPE. My inspiration. She grew but was not strong; Indeed! She was quite weak, feeble and sickly. A fragile thing. And then, One night she finally died cradled in my arms. Crushed by the weight of human sin and sorrow. The very life and breath squeezed out of her. She gasped under the weight of it. She could no more endure the pain, the separation from The Source of her existence. This heavy burden here on earth came bearing down too hard on her. She could not cling to life. She gasped and died. And there I stood between Heaven and earth cradling her in my arms. The Child of my HOPE was gone. Through the Gates of Heaven. I carried her HOME. For this place, is the place from whence she had come. I held her close to my heart, looking, searching longing for The Master. And... There He was before me. He saw and knew my pain, my grief, my sorrow. His too, was great. Pain glistened in His eyes. To think that such A Gift as this should perish in the earth. Together we offered her into The Eternal Flame. And ...she was gone... All trace of her was gone. My grief was overwhelming. The pain too much to bear. This is how it came to pass that she returned to me. Resurrected. Fully grown, strong and beautiful beyond comparison. Eternal. Everlasting Undying and more powerful than ever! HOPE. Waves of LOVE and JOY washed over me. Filled me again. I shall never lose HOPE. My HOPE lies in The LORD. This is The GIFT that Jesus has given me. Everything is A GIFT when it is taken and viewed in the positive LIGHT of the CROSS. I had to lose The Child of HOPE. I had to let her go so that she could be re-created, perfected and born anew within. ...HOPE never dies... HOPE! HOPE Healing & Wholeness Omnipotence Purpose & Meaning Eternal Essence of Life (c) Copyright Bette Boyd December 11, 1995 Please do not copy or use HOPE anywhere without my permission . Thank You. According to Carl Jung: The Angel personifies the coming into consciousness of something new arising from the deep unconsciousness..." Angel: a messenger of God. A supernatural being of more than human power, intelligence etc.. A guiding spirit. A conventionalized image of a figure in a human form with wings and a halo. Virtue: General moral excellence; goodness of character. Chastity. Excellence in general; merit. A specific excellence; good quality. Efficacy; potency; especially healing power, as of medicine. The Hierarchy of Angels; First Hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. Second Hierarchy: Dominions, Virtues, Powers. Third Hierarchy: Princedoms, Archangels, Angels. Luminesce: any giving off of light caused by the absorption of radiant energy. Radiant: Shining brightly. Filled with light. Showing love, joy well being etc.. Issuing from a source in or as in rays, branching out in all directions from a common centre. Omnipotence: having unlimited power or authority. (Having access to unlimited power or authority.)