I turned on the television this morning and the lead story was about a woman believed to have been abducted in rural Tennessee after a home invasion. This is the world I live in–a world where no place is safe, where harm is ‘normal’, where the ones with the guns control the outcomes.
And then I read today’s Scripture (Isaiah 11:6-10). Lions with lambs, leopards with goats, bears with cows, children with cobras. THIS is a world I know nothing about. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds amazing and wonderful, but it is also totally alien to my experience. Imagine a world where predator and prey do not fear one another; where generational enemies live as friends; where there is no harm or destruction; where power is not abused. This is certainly a new age–a glorious vision of Sabbath rest and shalom–made real through the knowledge of the Lord and the Root of Jesse.
I’m glad I read this passage. It is a reminder that what I see on television every day is not the way it will always be. The new day of peace which dawned that first Easter morning will come into fullness. One day. Imagine.
Tongue on Fire 