Resurrection Sunday. A day when we celebrate life defeating death and are reminded of the bigger story of restoration God is telling in our world. 

But, today is Tuesday and the restoration we trust God is making still seems far off. Amid this pandemic, the grave is more familiar than the resurrection. 

People are still dying. 

Jobs continue to be lost. 

Futures remain uncertain. 

We are still stuck in our house with kids home from school and our patience wearing thin. 

How do we find hope when there is none? 

Our friend, Manar, lives in the West Bank raising her two young children surrounded by military occupation. She also co-leads an elementary school called the House of Hope that helps kids heal from trauma and offers tools to build a new future.

Tanks. Midnight house raids. Armed soldiers. Military checkpoints. Border walls. 

This is the backdrop for her family’s daily existence. 

In the midst of an especially violent season a few years ago, we asked her, “How do you find hope?”

Her response was simple, “When there is no hope, we create it. We dance in the kitchen with our kids. We sing at the top of our lungs. We choose to laugh.”

Today, in the midst of what might seem like a hopeless season, how are we creating hope? 

Dance parties with kids. Singing songs across the street with your neighbors. Sending texts to people you love just to tell them they are awesome. 

It’s not that the hope of God’s restoration ever ceased to exist, it’s just that sometimes we need to live our way into knowing that hope is still real.