Hope

Once upon a time, there was a ship that sailed out to sea. Her name was the Hope. This ship had once been a good one, but she was old, and she didn’t have many voyages left in her. She was a cargo ship, but there were still a few passengers aboard who couldn’t afford to pay for a ride in anything better. One of them was a young man named Joseph.

Joseph was a poor man, and he was from a war-torn country. He knew that if his family stayed there, his children would never get to have a good education. So he and his wife saved up all of their money to move across the ocean to a better place. But before they had enough money for all of them to go, things started to get more and more dangerous. Finally, they made the difficult decision to leave Joseph behind to finish up while the others went ahead to the new land across the sea.

Those were a difficult eight months for Joseph. He nearly starved himself to save as quickly as possible, and he had no way of hearing how his family was doing. But he was happy, because he knew that every drop of blood and every tear he lost now would be paying for his children’s future in the new land.

One day, Joseph finally had enough to pay for his passage across the sea, and the next week he was aboard the Hope, full of joy as he thought about being reunited with his family.

The voyage would take two days if all went well. The first passed very quickly. Joseph’s quarters were crowded and dirty, and the food was terrible, but that didn’t matter to him.

However, that evening, a storm appeared on the horizon. Joseph and the other passengers were a bit worried, but the captain and the sailors weren’t concerned. They had been through many storms aboard the Hope, and she had held strong through them all.

But as the night drew longer, it became clear that this wasn’t an ordinary storm. Waves blew up nearly as high as the ship itself. Thunder cracked every few seconds. The wind tore at the sails and made the ship groan and creak. Soon, they began to realize that they were in real danger.

And finally, when the night was still not yet halfway over, a giant wave came crashing down on the old ship, and it splintered into pieces. She had given all of her strength, and it wasn’t enough.

But the wave didn’t just take the ship down. It brought down most of the passengers down as well, sucking them into the sea with a whirlpool that even the strongest sailors couldn’t fight. Only Joseph was spared, as he was flung into the air by a beam as it snapped.

A moment later, he landed into the tumultuous water. He instantly felt its icy coldness like a thousand needles pricking him. But he soon recovered from the shock and gave a strong stroke against the water to keep himself afloat.

Thankfully, Joseph was a good swimmer. Anything less, and he wouldn’t have been able to keep himself afloat for more than a few minutes in those icy, splashing waves.

But it wasn’t without a struggle. There wasn’t a moment that Joseph could let his guard down. One second, a wave would be splashing water all over him, getting water in his mouth and nose, and the next moment, a current would threaten to pull him underneath the surface. It took every last bit of his strength and concentration to keep fighting.

And keep fighting he did. The night drew on, and as violently as they clashed against him, the waves couldn’t pull Joseph under or make him give up. As cold as the water was, it couldn’t stop his arms from pulling against it.

But Joseph couldn’t go on forever, and unless he found some source of refuge, he would have to give up eventually.

Finally, after hours of swimming alone in the darkness, the rain and the storm started to slow. Finally, fewer currents threatened to pull him under, and the waves began to grow smaller.

But by now, Joseph was starting to lose control of his arms and legs. The icy water had long since made him completely numb. He couldn’t even feel his face anymore, let alone his fingers.

But Joseph was swimming now, and it was too late to give up. He wasn’t even thinking about it anymore. He was just swimming because that was what he knew he needed to do. He couldn’t remember why he was swimming. He could hardly even remember a time when he wasn’t swimming in these dark waters.

But he kept swimming anyways.

However, this could only go on for so long. He didn’t even realize it, but Joseph was starting to slow down. His strokes became fewer and further apart. He began to swallow and breathe great gulps of ice water more often.

Finally, the cold and the fatigue took their toll. Hardly even realizing it, Joseph gave one final stroke against the water and laid back to rest. He was so tired that he couldn’t even feel the relief.

But just then something happened. The sun began to appear over the horizon, and one ray landed on Joseph’s face as he slowly sunk into the waves.

And with that ray came a sudden flood of memories. Joseph saw his wife’s face smiling at him on their wedding day. Then he saw his mother, eating breakfast across the table from him on the day when she had been killed by the soldiers. Then he saw his two children, laughing and running around the room as he came home from a long day of work.

Then he remembered the long days of hard work he had taken to save extra money for his trip. And he remembered his hopes for the day when he would have been reunited with them.

That day was today!

A sudden new source of life leapt into his body, like a fire being stoked, and he began to struggle again. He was still so cold, so tired—but the fire within him grew hotter and hotter. He took one more stroke against the sea and rose up to the surface. Then he took another one and saw the sun beginning to rise.

Joseph took another stroke. And another. And another.

He began to swim towards the sun—towards that ray of light and warmth. He gave all of the energy he had. And when he finally thought that he really had nothing left, he caught a glimpse of the ship that would soon bring him safely home.