Lenten Blog – Day 38 – Searching for Hope

When I wrote my screenplay “The Search for Santa” two children travel across the United States and to the North Pole to find Santa.  Why?  To save their friend who was dying of cancer.

Having found Santa to be a disgruntled, bitter old man they feared their journey was a fruitless one.  Santa had given up once the “bad kids started out numbering the new ones.”

Finally one of the heroes says to Santa.  “My friend doesn’t have any hope anymore.”  This ruffles Santa’s feathers (if he had feathers) and suddenly Santa was back in the game, grabbing the lone elf hanging out with him at the North Pole and going about making a gift for the dying child.

Near the end of the script the dying child wakes up in his room to find Santa holding a gift.  A box.  Wrapped.  The dying boy opens the box and we do not see what is inside and our only view is of his hospital room from the outside and our heroes see that the room is filled with lights and colors and beauty.  The box was, indeed, filled with hope.

Hope for a future.  A better tomorrow.  A lasting peace.  Hope for dreams to come true.

It’s been over a year since I helped walk my son down the aisle for his wedding.  That day was filled with so much hope.  Of new beginnings and all the stuff that that may entail (amazing joys and crushing defeats, journeys of a thousand miles and baby steps).

When I walked to the bus this morning, the full moon shown bright.  That moon doesn’t know of the death of terrorist attacks.  That moon doesn’t know the depths of depression or hurt.  That moon doesn’t celebrate one’s accomplishments.  That moon doesn’t cheer you on.  It is just there.  Constant.

In the torture, pain and death of Christ – we see the disciples lose hope (scattering to the winds).  In the bleakness of that moment when all that had been hoped for, all that had been planned, all the triumphs of miracles and followers and everything Christ had said would come to pass – seemed lost in the very fact that Christ had been crucified.  Where do you find hope in death?  Where do you find hope in finality?

Though I’m searching for hope, I know that it will come.

The world keeps turning.