Image from bibleoutlines.com
"Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating: I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal - anything less will seem like a cheat. They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow. No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard. Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God. (Isaiah 65:17-25 The Message)
History will always be His Story; of God in control and in charge in spite of the messes we create for ourselves here on the earth. The Bible is full of events that make us shake our heads in wonder and sadness, and so have our lifetimes been as well. No one can point to their past and say they have been perfect and without error and consequences of that error. And so for us, the human race, God speaks through His prophet and says, "Hold on. I'm the Creator of all things and I'm not through yet. Listen, for I am creating a new heaven and a new earth. Everything of the past, troubles, chaos, and pain are to be forgotten." We are to look ahead with joy and expectation, for God is at work on our behalf. The list is shared by the prophet and it sums up the hope and faith we should continue to have in God and one in which we hold on to.
For now, the work of sharing God's love is still before us and may be even more of a difficult task, but we press on with hope and resolve that the grace of God is available to all people. The commandment is still in effect: Love one another.
PRAYER: May Your blessings be upon this earth, Heavenly Father. Be at work in all people. Share Your grace with us and help us make this world a better place, outdoing one another in showing love and support for each other. This we pray in Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
