I wasn’t 10 years old when I learned a lesson of assurance and hope. My father had a house painting business in addition to working as a firefighter. I spent many days at the homes my father painted. And because I loved my dad, I wanted to paint houses like he painted. It looked fun and easy. I mean you put the brush into the paint can, get some paint on it, and then apply it to the wall. Nothing to it! Or so I told myself. On this particular day, it was late in the afternoon when my father finally finished painting the living room and kitchen. He decided to start painting a bedroom upstairs, much to my chagrin. It was close enough to quitting time that I HOPED he would decide to call it a day an hour early. But my dad never did that. So there I was in the living room waiting for my dad.

At this point I could have continued to play with the toys I had brought for the day, but then I noticed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My dad left his paintbrush on the paint can to clean when he was completely done for the day. He was already done in the living room. What harm could come from applying a little more paint? After all, I needed to learn sometime. Besides, I was bored. I was tired of playing with the same toys all day. I had so HOPED to go home early. But now that we would be here a bit longer, I decided to open the paint can, dip the brush into the can & apply some more fresh paint on the walls. The color didn’t seem quite right, but I figured it was because the paint was wet. So I applied more and more until it became painfully obvious that the color was NOT the same! As I put the brush back I noticed there was paint on the floor as well. It was the same color I had just painted on the wall. I was terrified. What would my dad say? What would he think? What about the homeowner? How could he ever fix this mess? Would the homeowner get mad at my father? Now I HOPED my father would not be too angry with me. Now I HOPED he could fix the mess because I didn’t know how.

It was a long 30 minutes as I waited for my dad to come back down to the living room where I was “hiding.” I didn’t say a thing as he looked at the interesting color palette on the wall. Then he noticed the paint on the floor. I was ashamed & afraid. This is when my dad said, “Thanks for helping down here. It looks like we need to clean up so we can get home. Could you go to the car & get some clean rags for me?” I gladly ran to the car, found some clean rags and helped my dad clean up my mess.

I’ll never forget that day. That I learned the connection between ASSURANCE and HOPE. If I didn’t already know how much my dad loved me, I knew that day. I had the ASSURANCE of his steadfast love for me. This ASSURANCE gave me HOPE. Just a few hours earlier, my HOPE was based on what I could and would be doing. But now my HOPE was based on the ASSURANCE of what my dad could and would do for me. One of my favorite greetings from God is the greeting of Assurance that gives me Hope for the future. How has God assured you of His love? How does God give you hope?