Dave Hop In the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway, a cellist goes out each day risking his life to play in the street where 22 people were killed by an enemy shell, as they queued for bread. A local sniper is given the task of keeping him alive by picking off enemy snipers in the hills surrounding the city. The cellist is a vital sign of hope for the people in that devastated and besieged place. And they must keep him alive.
The Bible is full of people who dare to stand up as signs of hope when all around is collapsing. In chapter 32 of his book, Jeremiah bought a field when the land was under siege by the Babylonians, and everybody else was selling up. It seemed mad to buy land when it was being occupied by the enemy, but Jeremiah wanted to show the people that they had a future and a hope, even though the odds were stacked against them.
We cannot stop the wars around us, we cannot heal all the pain and suffering, or quieten the bad news, but we can be signs of hope in a broken world. Our lives can be notes of uplift in an age of cynicism and trouble. The light shines out of our faulty lives and we may never know how much it can mean for others.
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