An Arrowhead Called HOPE

An Encouraging Word- An Arrowhead Called Hope
April 5, 2026

Author’s Note:
This devotional is from a blog that I wrote in 2018. I was thinking about my Uncle Jim this weekend and wanted to share this beautiful story about him. He was a great human being!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An Arrowhead Called HopeMy father has owned his construction company since the early 1980’s, and has built more buildings than I know of. When I was a little girl, he did a great deal of work in Gallia County, Ohio and in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia area, mostly building pole barns on farms that had been in families for generations.  These old farms were large, situated along the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers in the beautiful Ohio Valley. The families who owned these farms were always very generous to my father, and appreciated his craftsmanship.
​
One family invited him to take us arrowhead hunting in their fields.  My dad invited my Uncle Jim , a huge arrowhead enthusiast, to come along.  We visited a very large farm with  fields along the Ohio River, freshly plowed up after harvest time.  Dad handed me a Wonder Bread sack and told me to “keep my eyes peeled”.  I had only seen arrowheads at my Uncle Jim’s house, hanging in a frame on the wall , and at the local flea markets for sale.  My Uncle Jim walked with dad and I and helped us to spot our first arrowhead.  I could only see a little bit of brownish-pink rock sticking out of the dirt.  I reached down and unburied it and was amazed to see the marks where it had been chipped and carved out of rock.  Plus , it was pink, so I thought that was super cool! I was hooked! Dad , and Uncle Jim , and I set off across the field, eyes searching the ground for anything that even resembled a rock.  I found so many arrowheads I could not believe it. Then I spotted the greatest find of all! On the ground in front of me was the biggest arrowhead I had seen that day. It was shiny black, like obsidian.  I bent down to dust the dirt off of it and was surprised to find that it was not a little arrowhead, but a large spearhead.  I yelled across the field, ” I found a big one!” .  

Dad and Uncle Jim gave me a thumbs up and told me to keep looking. I went back to looking but started to get a little distracted by the river, and watching the flat bottom barges loaded with coal, coming up and down the Ohio.  I must have absently-mindedly started swinging my Wonder Bread sack around while I was walking through the field.  I worked my way back over to dad and Uncle Jim, anxious to show them my spear head. However, when I got back to them , I discovered that the bread sack had a big hole in it, and I had lost almost all of my arrowheads, including that amazing spearhead.  I started running back through the field, and recovered some of the arrowheads, but never saw a trace of that beautiful black spearhead again.  That was almost 40 years ago and sometimes I still think about that day and wonder if anyone else found it or if it is still buried in a field along the Ohio River , back where near the same place that I found it when I was ten years old?  I guess that I am still holding out hope that I might get the chance to go back and look for that old spearhead again someday.


Hope is a powerful thing. It can sustain us through very dark times and be something to believe in, especially when there doesn’t seem like there is anything else to hold on to.  Hope is like the candle in the window leading us home through a lonely night. It is that little voice that whispers, “You are going to make it…”  The Bible says, ” Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life”, Proverbs 13:12 , The New Living Translation.
​

Hope is not meant to be deferred, delayed, or abandoned. Hope is meant to be what drives us to achieve, to meet our goals, to plan and design, to fulfill a longing in our souls. Is it a surprise that 1 Thessalonians 5:8 assigns  hope as a helmet, the “hope of our salvation”?  The greatest battles we face begin in our minds- the battles of despair, unbelief, and doubt.  I have been listening to a wonderful song from the band Tenth Avenue North, called I Have This Hope. The words are moving and inspire me. I hope that you enjoy them too. Psalm 33:20 ” We put our hope in the Lord.  He is our help and our shield” (New Living Translation).


I Have This Hope by Tenth Avenue North 
(you can listen to it by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBg9jHQtE44&list=RDeBg9jHQtE44&start_radio=1.

As I walk this great unknown
Questions come and questions go
Was there purpose for the pain?
Did I cry these tears in vain?
I don’t want to live in fear
I want to trust that You are near
Trust Your grace can be seen
In both triumph and tragedy
I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You’re with me and You won’t let go
But sometimes my faith feels thin
Like the night will never end
Will You catch every tear
Or will You just leave me here?
But I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You’re with me and You won’t let go
Yes, I have this hope
In the depth of my soul
In the flood or the fire
You’re with me and You won’t let go
So, whatever happens I will not be afraid
Cause You are closer than this breath that I take
Chin up dear one! You are loved more than you will ever understand by a Savior who is our hope. He is our Hope! Don’t ever stop seeking that arrowhead called hope It will point you straight to the Savior. 

Praying for you this week!
Melissa Boggs
Christian Life Academy Superintendent

---