The leaves of the citrus tree that sits beside my desk keep soundlessly dropping, whispering to the floor like silent tears.

“Maybe the most important question to ask your soul every day is simply: Where will you set your hope today so you don’t lose it?“

I am beyond baffled and kinda desperate as to why it’s slowly dying right in front of my eyes, like a metaphor for all the painful ways life here keeps unexpectedly turning, and how, in some ways, you have agency to do something, anything — and in other ways, all you can do is surrender and bear faithful witness and bear what comes with grace.

It’s cold here and snow fell defiant again just last week, smothering the coming delphiniums out by the picket fence and the unfurling climbing David Austin roses at the gate, all under a flattening blanket of white.

Can hope slowly die, ebb away, be buried, right on the cusp of spring?

I have no idea where the red-breasted robins flew when the winds blew again with the whirl of winter white flakes.

But, as I set down my cup of coffee next to that sacred Spirit Book, that ancient Book that is the only Living Book that speaks His Word, set it down there at the windowsill this week, this is what I know to be true:

Hope is a thing with feathers is what Emily Dickinson painfully wrote — as if hope can up and abscond into thin air, as if it can take wing, take flight and take leave of you, leaving you looking for your long lost hope.

“Hope doesn’t have a mind or will to head out on its own — hope will always be where you had a mind to set it, wherever you have your heart set on.“

But the truth is: Hope is a thing you set down. Because isn’t that what you always do with hope? Set your hopes, set your hopes, set your hopes.

Hope is a thing that you choose where you set down. Hope isn’t a thing that has leg or wing, a thing that can run off on you, run out on you, fall apart on you, escape and get lost on you. You can’t lose your hope — you hope is always exactly where you set your hope last down.

Where is your hope? Wherever you last set it down.

Set your hope on people and they, made of but dust, will give way and let you down. Set your hope on dreams and they can blow away with one turn of the weather vein, ash in the wind.

Set your hope on a timeline and it can turn out to be a kind of noose that leaves all your hopes hanging.

Set your hope on something that is immoveable — and you will never lose your hope. You can only lose your hope, if you set your hope down on something that can fall apart, implode, high tail it out of there.

“Where will you set your hope today so you don’t lose it? “

Hope doesn’t have a mind or a will to head out on its own — hope will always be where you had a mind to set it, wherever you have your heart set on.

“Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13.)

Our Shalom, she had spoken that verse over us the other night after dinner, as she recited the first chapter of 1 Peter from well-worn memory paths in her mind, as it’s our spiritual practice to close a meal with the real dessert and lasting sustenance of His Word — and I kept savouring those three words, turning them over and over again in my mind like the last bit of apple pie:

Set your hope.

Maybe the most important question to ask your soul every day is simply: Where will you set your hope today so you don’t lose it?

This question of where you will set your hope every day is of the utmost importance because if you start to lose your hope, you will start to lose your will to live.

Always set every bit of your hope in the person of Jesus — and the person of Jesus will always give you hope in everything.

“There is an old expression that says, ‘As long as there is life there is hope.’ As Christians we also say, ‘As long as there is hope there is life,’ “ is what the theologian Henri Nouwen wrote.

If it matters most where you set your hope, then maybe setting one’s hope is much what like my grandmother and all the wise mothers used to say: “Everything in its place and a place for everything.”

Always set the keys in the drawer at the back door — and lo and behold, where do you always find the keys? Always slip your charge cord in the back right pocket of your bag — and, a modern day miracle, there she be, every time!

Always set every bit of your hope in the person of Jesus — and the person of Jesus will always give you hope in everything.

Others may look around and end up feeling hopeless, but if you look up to Christ and set all your hope in Him, you end up having endless hope.

Others may look around and end up feeling hopeless, but if you look up to Christ and set all your hope in Him, you end up having endless hope.

Our hope isn’t set on how things work out, but our hope is set on the One Who finished the work and keeps us safe in Himself.

It’s true — winds blow hard and chilled darkness settles in and hearts break and souls grow weary of trying to be brave. But when your hope is set real close in Jesus who is closer yet, whenever you grieve failing, you can know that your every failing is fully covered with His grace, whenever you dread the future, you can feel His safe, protective arms holding you closer, and whenever you think all Hope is lost, you can hear Him whisper: “Never fear, all your Hope is right here in Me.”

Set your hope in Jesus, set all your hope right there in His hands, and your hope always stays right with you… Because Jesus always stays right with you.

The only safe place to set your hopes, expectations, is in the hands of the One who will never leave you, who loves you to death, the only hands in the universe that has your name inscribed right into them and will hold yours every step of the way to Home.

The whole windowsill and the corner of my desk are littered with even more dropped leaves this week from our waning citrus tree. My journal is a scribble of heart cries and begging prayers, for twists and turns in our story that could twist a heart into a relentless ache of knots.

But too at the corner of my desk, by the window, my worn Bible’s set down right there.

Leaves and life can wither and fall, but your hope can be set in Him who always rises.