Hope.

My dear friend Kimberly wears the same bracelet everyday and has for a few months now. Its a plane metal band that is open in the back so she can take it on and off. Engraved on it is a name, rank and a year.

Kim isn't usually the type to wear jewelry, much less the exact same piece of jewelry everyday, so I asked her about it. She began telling me a story about her Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy was MIA during the Vietnam war and was later found out to be a POW. Jimmy had been MIA and a POW for over 9 months. Kimberly's Mom and a few others had bracelets made with Jimmy's name, rank, and the date he went missing. They decided to wear them until Jimmy's body was recovered or he came home.

It was Thanksgiving night and everyone had already eaten and was putting the food away, when they heard the front door open. It was Jimmy. Giving no immediate explanation of how he had gotten there or what had happened, he instead just asked where the food was.

After things had settled down a little, everyone who had a bracelet honoring Jimmy gave them to him. They were in his possession until he died.

Everyone who had worn those bracelets had worried and prayed and hoped that Jimmy would come home. And he did.

Kimberly's bracelet, however, does not have Jimmy's name on it. Hers has the name of a family friend. The year that's on it? 1969. Someone in her family has worn it and has worried and prayed and hoped that he would come home.

He may, but he probably never will. But they have hope and still pray for his family.

Hope is a funny thing. Sometimes we reject hope because it seems completely pointless. At other times we cling to hope because its all we have to cling to. Maybe we're too willing to give up our hope. Maybe we should keeping holding to it, clinging to it, fighting for it. Even after days or weeks or months or years. Its worth fighting for.