Earlier this week, we noted that Hope is not just a wish, but confident expectation in the future—even when the world might think us obstinate fools.  But how can that be?  How can confident expectation, which seems more a feature of science, like the sun rising tomorrow morning, share anything in common with hoping for a miracle, which seems more a feature of faith, like the disciples hoping for the resurrection of Jesus?

Well, it starts with understanding that Hope is, indeed, a theological virtue—that means a virtue related to understanding God.  Yet modern man will tell you that science and God have little to do with one another; that the realm of miracles is distinct from the realm of nature.  But that is where modern man goes quite wrong.

Louis Pasteur, the French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist, famously declared, “A little science estranges men from God, but much science leads them back to Him.”  He knew that God was as much behind his scientific research as his belief in the miraculous.

Indeed, any good scientist will acknowledge that it is precisely his confidence in the daily order of creation—that God’s universe is not random—that allows him to conduct rigorous, scientific research on cancer.  And the confidence that drives him to the laboratory each day in the hope of finding a medical cure, is the same confidence that drives a son to pray at the bedside of his cancer-stricken father, in the hope of a miraculous cure.

In both cases, the scientist and the son have hope grounded on the reliability, providence, and goodness of God.  Don’t be fooled—genuine Hope depends on God, whether it is in the rising of the morning sun or in the rising of God’s Son.

Have a wonderful day.