Hope Trees

I was leaving campus today and looked up to see these blooms. 

They are indeed "hope trees" (the name given to the early cherry blossoms from my sister-in-law many years ago that I love.) 

As you are just about a week away from turning 13, I wanted to give you some verses to read and ponder about hope... 

Oh! May the God of green (or pink) hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! Romans 15:13 

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11

Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalm 31:24

Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

Psalm 25:5