A WORD FOR TODAY, December 2, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, December 2, 2025
“For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:22-25, WEB
Sadako Sasaki was a young Japanese girl who developed Leukemia in 1955. Paper folding, or origami, was a well-established recreational activity in Japan for centuries by the time Sadako lived. There were certain patterns that were especially popular, based on the cultural icons of the Japanese people. In 1797 a book was published called “Hiden Senbazuru Orikata” which means “The Secret of One Thousand Paper Cranes Origami.” This book was the first to describe the steps in making origami, a tradition that had been passed verbally for over a millennium. By that time there was already a tradition that if a person folded one thousand paper cranes, they would be granted one wish by the gods.
Sadako’s best friend convinced her to fold a thousand paper cranes so that she could wish for good health. Unfortunately, Sadako died before she was able to finish her task. Her classmates finished her work, and she was buried with her cranes. There is now a memorial sculpture honoring Sadako and her hope for peace in the world. Her Leukemia was the aftereffects of the radiation of the Hiroshima bomb. Those paper cranes became a symbol of the hope for peace in the world. Now children from all over the world send paper cranes to the memorial to share in the hope.
The legend of the paper cranes has spread to other countries and is even being taken up by the governments that have reached the end of their rope when it comes to dealing with violence in their nations. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand once instructed his cabinet in the making of paper cranes and they spent a meeting doing so. There was a movement in the nation to somehow overcome the insurgency that had ripped apart the lives of so many people in south Thailand. On Sunday, December 5, 2004, they dropped nearly 100 million paper cranes on three provinces. The cranes were made by people all over the country and were dropped by military plane to mark the birthday of their king.
There were those who considered it a wasted effort. They saw the dropping of a 100 million paper cranes as nothing more than an inconvenience to those who would have to clean up the mess after it was all over. They may be right to an extent. The gods do not grant wishes, and paper can’t stop bullets. However, the Prime Minister recognized that there was a great need among the people in those places: a need for hope. Hope needs to be more than just symbolic gestures, so he promised to give a scholarship to every student that found a paper crane with his signature and the unemployed would be found a job.
We put our hope in many things. Sadako put her hope in a thousand paper cranes, but that hope disappointed. Her friends put their hope in the same cranes, hoping that they would bring peace to the world. Perhaps it is a waste to drop 100 million paper cranes in a war-torn area, and it certainly is not something in which we should put our hope. Even the promise of a scholarship or job is so remote that it would be disappointing for the many people for whom such a gift would be life-changing, because many would not receive the promise.
As Christians we have a hope that does not disappoint. It is a hope that we can’t see or touch or feel. The world looks no different today than it did before Jesus’ birth. It is still filled with sinners, suffering and pain. Yet, there is a difference because we now live in a hope that does not disappoint; a hope in the promises of God that we will receive in His day. It is especially manifest during this time of Advent while we wait for the birth of our Lord Jesus at Christmas and look forward to the second coming of our King. We live in hope, looking forward to that which will be rather than hoping for impossible dreams.
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