In many cases, especially for those who were not of royal birth, we know very few details about individuals from ancient history. Yet, somehow, what we know about one such person has made him something of a poster child for hope in our modern world. Here are a few of the key things history records…

He lived in a culture when identity was found in sonship and genealogy, so he is only known as Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah.

After entering an exacting, demanding profession, he was called at a very young age to take on a new job that terrified him, but a job he would do faithfully for many years afterward nonetheless.

He was beaten, publically ridiculed, threatened with death, imprisoned in a dungeon, and held captive in a muddy cistern while following his calling.

And he was freed from all of that in time to see his beloved city and homeland overrun by enemies who would carry most of his people away into political exile.

Hope?

This same man would go on, out of his sorrow, to pen some of the most beloved words cherished by followers of his God. But let us not divorce those latter words from the former, a rich contrast from which the latter spring.

He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughing stock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” I remember my affliction and my wondering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:13-26, NIV).

In a triad of the most foundational virtues, love is what we long to give and need to live, and faith sees invisible promises as tangible cords to grasp. But hope?

Hope is the metaphorical sparrow flittering around us in Dickinson’s short, classic poem and the magnificently fragile moth meeting Gandalf in his moment of utmost dispair in Tolkien’s sweeping, epic masterpiece. It is a pillar of stone that grows in strength through each trial, holding up every burden that would otherwise crush the life out of us.

It is in the sun rising again every day as a blessing from the Maker who whispers, “Here it is: My gift for a fresh new start and your chance to trust My mercy again.” It is in the acceptance of that gift, the reflection of that Maker’s light.

We can look back on Jeremiah’s life and see all the events of his life after they happened. But in the moment, in each of those days, he certainly couldn’t understand all that was to come, for though he was a prophet, he was a completely human one.

He was honest about his struggles and feelings, but he still held onto the new dawn waiting over each horizon.

May we do the same.