Why Hope? God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines.

From Pope Benedict's sermon, Feast of Our Lady's Nativity, September 8, 2007:

"The Gospel passage we have just heard broadens our view. It presents the history of Israel from Abraham onwards as a pilgrimage, which, with its ups and downs, its paths and detours, leads us finally to Christ. The genealogy with its light and dark figures, its successes and failures, shows us that God can write straight even on the crooked lines of our history. God allows us our freedom, and yet in our failures he can always find new paths for his love. God does not fail. Hence this genealogy is a guarantee of God’s faithfulness; a guarantee that God does not allow us to fall, and an invitation to direct our lives ever anew towards him, to walk ever anew towards Jesus Christ."

I take such encouragement from this, and from the 'characters' of God's story. God does indeed, 'write straight with crooked lines' and that is such good news. Praise God for His Mercy, and his ability to make the best darn lemonade from a whole lotta lemons. :)
Christ has won. God's here, He's working, all will be well.