There is always light if only we are brave to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
– Amanda Gorman
One of my father’s frequent comments was, “if you are alive, there is hope for you.” My memory of what it meant came to me while visiting Tirana, Albania.
I was taking an evening stroll through the central boulevard of the capital of Albania. Cars were hardly to be seen on the streets in those days. Naturally. Walking prevailed.
One could likely run into a prominent Albanian personality. He might be a popular actor, or a politician. And, if you care to stop, meet them, and listen, you are destined for a treat.
On a stroll you could meet and talk. Before then, someone was watching that they would not talk. They lived doomed in a classless society, where someone else decided your own fate.
But the change arrived in 1991.
Sitting in a small, overcrowded, and noisy café, I met Zef Bushati, an actor from the national theater, now an Albanian republican politician. He was running for a parliamentary election, and shared with me his concerns, desires, and vision. Speaking about his country’s future, he told me an Albanian legend. It soon became my own.
In the beginning, God created two people—a man and a woman. First, he created a man. He endowed him with traits and personality. When a woman was created, she equally received certain characteristics. God said to her, “I am going to give you something special. It is locked in this jar. Here it is, take it to the man.”
“What is inside?” she inquired.
“What I put inside is called curiosity. You must not open the jar. Carry it the way it is. If you look inside, it will disappear,” He answered.
She went on a journey to meet the man. But … she could not resist. Her perfectly shaped fingers soon popped the lid open. At this instant curiosity evaporated. She quickly closed the jar, thinking that no-one will notice any change, if there was one.
When she met the man, she handed the jar over to him. It was only hope that remained with her.
Looking around, often I feel like someone whose tomorrow may have been tampered with by someone else or gambled away by myself. Then I remember that, as long as I live, there is hope for me.
Believing Adventists know that their future is guaranteed by Jesus, the purveyor of our faith, guarded by hope and love.
In the words of Apostle Peter: Live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed his coming (2 Peter 3:11-12, NIV).
Rajmund Dabrowski is editor of Mountain Views. Email him at: [email protected]