This is such a broken world. Over the past few years especially, opening the news app or scrolling past headlines has felt so heartbreaking. So much injustice. So much abuse and death. So many people marginalized and devalued. So many without access to even basic care, while others have more than enough and simply don't care.
Sometimes the longing to see all that is broken healed and all that is sad become untrue feels like an impossible wait—so heavy, so wearying, almost unbearable. Yet we hope against hope, knowing this is not how things were meant to be, and this is not how they always will be.
Last night I was thinking about how these last few days (hopefully!) or weeks before our little girl is born are a bit of a poetic picture of that longing we all share. I am so ready to be done being pregnant. I'm uncomfortable, and after several weeks of off-and-on prodromal labor, I'm just weary—physically and mentally.
Our little girl's name is Anniera (Uh-NEAR-uh) Hope. I shared the meaning of her name in another post, so I won't unpack it all again here. But when we chose her name, we were thinking about hope restored in the midst of a dark and broken world.
As I listened to some songs on Anniera Hope's playlist last night, I was struck by how beautifully these lyrics capture the heart of this season of waiting and the hope we have for what is to come. They give words to the deep longing for justice, healing, restoration, and wholeness. Ultimately, this is what we are waiting for in this life more than anything else: the kind of hope Anniera's name points toward—a pure, unshakable Hope that cannot be destroyed and that will, in the end, have the final word.
I've linked each song below in case you'd like to pause for a few minutes today, listen, and reflect on Hope.
Are you with us? Have You left us in the dark?
Can you hear us? Do our cries still move Your heart?
Jesus, you will make all things new
You will heal us, You will mend what death has torn
Life will spring up, joy will bloom instead of thorns
Jesus, you will make all things new
The blind will finally see, the lame will run and leap
The dead will rise and breathe for You have conquered
And every tear that fell will cry out “it is well”
The dark will be dispelled for You have conquered
The Lamb for sinners slain is coming soon to reign
Our hope is not in vain for You have conquered
Every serpent here that strikes your heel
To curse you when you crawl
The king of love one day will crush them all
And every sad seduction, and every clever lie
Every word that woos and wounds the pilgrim, children of the sky
The king of love will break them by and by
And you will rise up in the end
You will rise up in the end
I know the night is cruel
But the day is coming soon
When you will rise up in the end
If a thief had come to plunder
When the children were alone
If he ravaged every daughter
And murdered every son
Would not the father see this?
Would not his anger burn?
Would he not repay the tyrant
In the day of his return?
Await, await the day of his return
Cause he will rise up in the end
He will rise up in the end
I know you need a savior
He's patient in his anger
But he will rise up in the end
And when the stars come crashing to the sea
When the high and mighty fall down on their knee
We'll see the Son descending in the sky
The chains of death will fall around your feet
And you will rise up in the end
You will rise up in the end
You will rise up in the end
I know you will
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