The ignited heart

Great sorrow doused all hope in the hearts of the men as they trekked from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They had just seen Jesus executed.  Later, they recognized the accompanying Stranger as the Savior, and then He was gone. However, like a torch touched to kindling, His presence reignited their smoldering hearts. He moved on elsewhere, but the power of His influence remained.

My friend Jim DeLoach told of seeing an illustration of a burned-down shack. An old man stood looking at the charred chimney and all that remained. A tattered little boy clung to his leg, crying. The artist, Jim reported, wrote the old man’s words along the bottom of the picture: “Hush child, God ain’t dead!”           

The presence of Jesus is all it takes to ignite a heart that has lost its dreams. If He “ain’t dead” neither is hope.

TODAY’S FOCUS
Meditate on the implications of the resurrection for hope in your own life, and ask God to ignite your heart with His hope.