Almost twenty years ago Dee Dee and I started
dreaming about travels we would be doing as a couple during our marriage. We would share with each other different
places from all around the world and most of the places were different except
for one place, Scotland. Being a
Galloway whose family came to the United States in the late 1700’s from Scotland,
we have documented history of a Galloway dying in Scotland around 1100 in
Edinburgh. We also discovered early in
our marriage that the Dee River ran through the region of Galloway in Scotland.
Dee Dee started making the statement
that one day she would stand on the Dee River in Galloway and take a picture. After many children and lots of financial
losses through the years it seemed we would never see this event ever happen in
our lifetime. This did not stop Dee Dee
from saying that one day she was going to take a picture on the Dee River in
Galloway. After becoming missionaries in
Bulgaria I never imagined that Dee Dee’s dream would ever come true. Then by a miracle, from a grant to attend a
minister’s conference in Birmingham, England, Dee Dee got to experience her
dream. I now recall that she keep saying
I’m going to have my picture taken on the Dee river in Galloway and I started
picturing her standing beside the river taking a picture. When I snapped the picture this week of her at
the river, God did it better than I had imagined, Dee Dee was standing the Dee
bridge on top of the Dee River in Galloway. So what is this simple lesson, Hebrews
11:1 now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I want to focus on the word hope, without hope,
faith could not be the substance. Hope
is the ability to imagine or visualize something in your mind, like the picture
of Dee Dee standing by the Dee River. After
years of confessing and believing, with hope, this dream finally came true. It did not just happen, it was first hoped
for, then a picture was formed in her mind twenty years ago, and then God did
more than we could have imagined. “Delight
yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Ps. 37:4
