On December 17, 1927, USS S-4 (SS-109), an eight year old S-class submarine, was submerged just off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Right nearby, on the surface, the USCGC Paulding, a Coast Guard destroyer, was headed southeast. At 3:37 in the afternoon, the officer of the deck on the Coast Guard ship didn’t see the periscope of the submarine until it was too late. The Paulding unintentionally rammed the sub with a section of her bow, crushing into the hull of S-4 and punching a hole in the ballast tank and one in the pressure hull. 

Freezing water flooded into the boat and she immediately began to sink. The saltwater flooding the battery compartment mixed with battery acid and formed toxic chlorine gas, quickly filling any space not yet occupied by water. Soon the deadly gas was forced by the water into where the survivors were huddling. By morning, when the first rescue diver knocked on the torpedo loading hatch, he was met with six slow taps in response to his question about how many had survived. Six men were still alive.

But try as they may, help was not coming fast enough. The next to last communication heard from the remaining crew in Morse code was “Is there any hope?” But unfortunately, the toxic gas took the lives of all 40 men.

Hope comes in many different forms and we use the word, as we do the word Love, interchangeably for the big and the small all throughout our lives. We hope we get an A on our test. We hope the cute boy in the third row looks our way. We hope we receive a Christmas bonus. We hope for a boy or a girl…or both! 

We may also hope for enough money to pay the rent, buy milk for the baby that we hoped for and hope that our hope is enough to sustain us until, hopefully, something better comes along. 

We even hope for hope!

But Jesus said we didn’t have to live that way any longer. He came as the Hope of the World! Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

In a world full of darkness and seemingly constant despair, Jesus is our hope, our peace, our confidence and no matter what comes into our lives, even the unthinkable, He has promised to NEVER leave us or forsake us! NEVER! 

We like to think we live in a picture perfect world especially after we give our hearts and lives to God. Filled with His spirit, we can conquer anything according to the Word of God. But we are still living in a sin-filled world until Jesus returns for His church and we will face things here just as the disciples did many, many years ago. 

And just as the men on the submarine faced…..they wanted to know if there was hope and yet they perished. Why? Because we aren’t promised a life without trouble or pain but we are promised that Jesus will be WITH us, IN us and right beside us no matter what we go through. And news flash, we don’t live forever down here! Our hope is in eternity and no doubt there were men on that submarine tapping into their Hope, finding that perfect peace in their last moments; Jesus didn’t forsake them, He walked them into eternity!

The HOPE we have today is that He is WITH us, He is IN us, and the more we pray and read and depend on His Word, the more confident we become in that glorious Hope.

Hope has a name and it’s JESUS!

We don’t have to be afraid, we don’t have to live in a constant state of worry and anxiety. We can still live joyfully and accomplish what God has put us here to do: tell others what He has done for us; share the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus gave HIS life for us that we could live FOREVER with Him someday. And until that day comes, we can live victoriously and full of hope here on this earth, abounding in the work of God, encouraging our neighbor and bringing that Hope, sharing that Hope, with those we come in contact with.

Spend this week studying about hope in the Bible. Look up scriptures pertaining to hope and see how Jesus has always been, and still is, that Hope that saved the world!

Then, remember that there are others watching you and desiring to have what you have, don’t keep Him to yourself, Jesus Christ, the Living Hope!