有三年之久，我朋友蘇珊除了日常生活用品外，沒有給自己買過任何東西。新冠肺炎疫情造成她的收入銳減，使她必須過簡樸的生活。她說：「有一天我在打掃家裡時，發覺家裡的東西看起來又破舊又褪色。使我不禁開始懷念擁有新事物時，所帶來的那種既新鮮又興奮的感受。如今身邊的一切如此陳舊黯淡，讓我覺得生活好像沒什麼值得期待。」

後來，蘇珊讀了耶利米哀歌，卻意想不到地得到了安慰。巴比倫攻占耶路撒冷後，先知耶利米寫下耶利米哀歌，描述自己與百姓遭受撕心裂肺的創傷。然而在悲慟絕望中，卻蘊藏真實的盼望，那就是上帝的愛。耶利米寫道：「祂的憐憫不致斷絕。每早晨這都是新的。」（3章22-23節）

這段經文提醒了蘇珊，上帝深切的愛能使她天天突破現況、開啟新的篇章。當身處的環境讓我們覺得無可期待時，我們可以回想上帝的信實，並期盼祂的供應。我們可以滿懷信心地仰望上帝，知道我們的盼望必不落空（24-25節），因為我們所信的是滿有慈愛與憐憫的上帝。

蘇珊說：「上帝的愛就是我每天的『新事物』，使我對未來有了盼望。」

For three years, apart from household necessities, Susan didn’t buy anything for herself. The Covid-19 pandemic affected my friend’s income, and she embraced a simple lifestyle. “One day, while cleaning my apartment, I noticed how shabby and faded my things looked,” she shared. “That’s when I started to miss having new things—the sense of freshness and excitement. My surroundings seemed tired and stale. I felt as if there was nothing to look forward to.”

Susan found encouragement in an unlikely book in the Bible. Written by Jeremiah after Jerusalem fell to Babylon, Lamentations describes the open wound of grief suffered by the prophet and the people. In the midst of grief’s despair, however, lies sure ground for hope─God’s love. "His compassions never fail,” Jeremiah wrote. “They are new every morning” (3:22-23).

Susan was reminded that God’s deep love relentlessly breaks through anew each day. When circumstances make us feel there’s no longer anything to look forward to, we can call to mind His faithfulness and look forward to how He’ll provide for us. We can confidently hope in God, knowing our hoping is never in vain (vv. 24-25) because it’s secured in His steadfast love and compassion.

“God’s love is my ‘something new’ each day,” Susan says. “I can look ahead with hope.”