An Anchor of Hope

Like an endless loop of film, the image of a ship’s anchor kept running through my mind for days.  I haven’t been on a boat to think about an anchor, and the little anchor for our boat isn’t anything but a weight on the end of a rope, so why was I constantly thinking about an anchor?  Although the shape of the anchor is curved I still considered it a likeness to the cross of Christ and in that light it also reflects the characteristic we associate with Christ as being our anchor.  We find these words in Hebrews 6:19, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.”

In addition to the anchor being a symbol of terrestrial and eternal HOPE, the shape of an anchor simulates the shape of the Cross upon which Jesus died for our sins. In early Christian iconography in the Roman catacombs (c. late 100-400 AD), one often finds on the tombs of the dead Christians an anchor as a symbol of their firm hope in an eternal life with their Savior. (EarlyChurchHistory.org)

That hope, that anchor is none other than Jesus Christ, and it is He who enters into God’s presence before us (behind the veil).  In the Old Testament we know that only the high priests could enter the veil to the mercy seat; today that veil has been torn away and we have a divine High Priest standing in for us.  What is the job of an anchor?  To fix or secure in a particular place; Jesus has, by His death on the cross, fixed and secured the believer a spot in the greatest particular place!  A place to spend eternity, in worship and service to God with fellow believers.

Anchors hold the ship steady while riding out a storm in the midst of the sea or in calm waters in a safe port.  As Christians we experience both the storms of life and seasons of floating peacefully…in either case an anchor is a must have!  Without it we would be tossed to and fro, drifting aimlessly about in life. 

For the Christian, Christ is “the Way, the Truth, the Life” (John 14:6) and the Anchor of our soul Who fastens and fixates both our hope here on earth and in the world to come. 

 Sandra Sweeny Silver

Are you fastened to THE Anchor today?