Three Wishes...

There is a billboard that I pass a few times each month in my many travels.  It asks the question, "If you had three wishes...?"I guess the idea is that a lot of the things we wish for can be purchased from a store, because it is for a store called Three Wishes.

It has led to many interesting conversations as I ponder aloud with my passengers what our wishes would be. Unfortunately for the store, none of us have wished for anything we could buy.

Road trips are always a great time to ponder and dream.

It's a tough question, but it has made me wonder if wishing might be a very healthy thing to do.  Dreaming, hoping, believing....all these things are necessary to move ourselves forward from present circumstances into growth, success, and fulfillment.  That is if we see our wishes as being someday attainable and not unrealistic pipe dreams that we think about to escape and are unwilling to work towards.

The church I have been attending has been spending a little time in Hebrews 11 over the past couple of weeks.  It talks a lot about faith and what that has looked like in the history of Israel (or if you like the Hebrew or Jewish people).  The verse I have heard quoted most often says:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

This is all very encouraging and leads me to believe with certainty that certain dreams and hopes I keep tucked in my heart will some day come to pass.  But as I read more of the chapter, I am needing to come to terms with some of those historical examples that look a little different than what we may be hoping for.

Some of those heroes of faith from the Old Testament (Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Abel, Moses...) did not actually experience in this life those things they had hoped for and were so certain would happen.

All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  Hebrews 11:13

The writer goes on with this thought to show why this is a good thing:

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return.  Instead they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Hebrews 11:14-16

Sometimes I question God when I see where a person's life ends here on the earth, but this scripture encourages me.If I have faith (hope with certainty) that there is actually more to come, and those things to come are more than we could ever imagine then I can continue to hope for more in my own life.

This is why I think wishing is important...it pushes your mind to believe that life can be more than it is as we know it right now.

What are your three wishes?