My hope awaits Thee, O Lord.
The awaiting of Thee is the only content and the only meaning of my Tomorrow and my Day After Tomorrow.
The grass awaits the dew, and is not deceived. The mountain awaits the thunders, and is not deceived. The mole beneath the earth awaits its meal, and is not deceived. The expectations of all beings Thou dost satisfy.
I await Thee, and Thou comest to meet me. According to the swiftness of my walking toward Thee, Thou also drawest near to me.
What is Tomorrow, O children of earth, but your hope? If you uproot all your hope, your desire, too, will die — that Tomorrow should dawn.
Do not murmur against Heaven, that it does not fulfill all your hopes, but murmur against yourselves, that you do not know how to hope. Heaven does not fulfill hopes but hope. The most exalted and strongest hope Heaven always fulfills. Do not murmur against Heaven, that It does not regard the fruits of your kinships and your parties, and does not enter into your conspiracies of one against another. It is clear-sighted and merciful. It is clear-sighted for every good in every party, and merciful toward your weakness, if good will accompanies it.
My hope is not a presentiment but a certainty, that Thou wilt come. Thou hast promised, and the seal of Thy promise I bear in my soul. If Thou comest not yet, the fault is not Thine but mine. Thou art tender and compassionate, and wouldst not wish to shame me with my unreadiness. Therefore Thou walkest slowly, and ceaselessly announcest to me Thy coming.
Hopelessness sits idle. But my hope cleanses and washes without ceasing; and airs and censes the chambers in which it will receive Thee. And it takes care day and night, lest it forget anything that would be pleasing to Thee. And it ceaselessly calls upon the angels and the saints — the seers of mysteries — to instruct it, how to make its cave like unto Heaven.
My hope has neither companion nor partner. All other hopes I have driven out of myself as proven deceivers. And in their place now grows in abundance only the hope that awaits Thee.
When Thou comest, Thou wilt bring me gifts most rich. With Thee, O Victor, there will come to me victory over all vexations and cares. With Thee will come light, and health, and strength, and wisdom, and all the fullness of all human expectations from the beginning to the end of time.
Truly, men with many hopes, apart from Thee, sit upon a mountain and await the rising of the sun from the West.
But I stand facing the East, and I know with assurance that the sun will soon be born. For I see the dawn growing crimson.
Others plant dry sticks in the earth, and hope for greenery and fruit. But in my field living seed is sown, which grows green and bears fruit.
My hope in Thee is not divination but certainty, the very same certainty as that the sun must be born from the East, and that good seed, sown in good earth, must spring up.
Thine is the field, and Thou art both the sower and the seed.
Come, O Lord, my hope awaits Thee!