“You know the sound the Tardis makes? That wheezing, groaning. That sound brings hope wherever it goes.”

“Yes. Yes, I like to think it does.”

“Do you want to know who hears it, Doctor? Anyone. However lost. Even you.”

– The Moment (as Rose Tyler) & the Doctor, Doctor Who
Special episode, “The Day of the Doctor”

This is one of those times where I can hardly add anything to this, not really.

This is from one of my most favorite episodes of Doctor Who. It was very well done, especially as it was to celebrate the show’s fiftieth anniversary, and in so doing it grasped the heart of the Doctor’s adventures and his character. He is a man who spends his entire long life bringing hope to those who need it, but he is also a man who has needed the same hope he gives.

Hope, it must be said, is more than a wish. It’s more than merely wanting something. It’s a driving force, one that convinces you to survive another day and, even more, persuades you to be your best self. Many are the terrible deeds that are done simply because people have lost hope. Some people rage at that. Others drown in sorrow. Still others march on, grimly, doing what they do only because they know no other way.

That Doctor, in this moment, falls into the latter category.

At his lowest moment, when he is filled with despair and on the brink of doing the worst thing he will ever do, and resigning himself to the incomprehensible weight of it, he is a man without hope. Then the most unexpected thing happens: hope finds him. His better selves find him. Trapped in darkness, his light finds him. And though it seems, for a moment, that even this faint hope will be in vain… it isn’t. All at once, he finds a better way. He is shown a better way. And he takes that path gladly.

Sometimes, in life, we are able to find hope, or kindle it, or carry it, and sometimes even share it. But when it all fails and we have no hope left, sometimes it will find us instead. As strange as it may sound, sometimes we have to have hope in having hope.

May we all be blessed with hope in our time of need.