Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article The great mandala Monday, March 11, 2002 Isaiah 65:16-25 "For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes. Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. ... For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. ... The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the Lord. I read these promises and feel my spirits lift. If I were in 21st century Jerusalem, listening to gunshots echo outside my locked door late at night, wondering how I'll get to the market for food tomorrow, I would etch these promises in my mind. And yet still, I would ask "When, Lord? When will this come? How long will we wait?" Tears of fear and despair would stain the pages of my copy of Isaiah. For thousands of years tears have fallen on those words. Not yet, not anywhere, does the wolf eat with the lamb. Harm and destruction have circled for centuries as we crouch near our tiny fires. The silence of dark night is broken by wails of mothers weeping sleepless over the bodies of their soldier sons. The peace God promises eludes us. No new heaven, only bombs. No new earth, only blood trailing through dusty streets. Political speeches dot the airwaves of America in March like flies hit our windshields in July. They come and come and come. They change nothing. Political promises are not the promises recorded by Isaiah. God does not speak through the mouths of politicians, regardless of their desire to convince us of the contrary. It is easy to give up hope. Under the thin veneer of civilization so little has changed. Especially when the lives of my own children are threatened, I lose my vision. But still God's words have been written. God is not a politician. His promises are not the promises of created ones, but the promises of the creator. And with him, "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness" (2 Peter 3). Holy Spirit, put wings on the words of God. And give me ears to hear them as you do. "; Add      Edit    Delete