Can you imagine?

The Isaiah text today begins like this:

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  (Isaiah 65: 17)

Can you imagine such a thing - new heavens and new earth.  As I write this there is a blizzard in the east and the news is full of talk about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.  And what we are imagining is schools closed, streets impassable and fewer people getting health care and prices for everything going up.  There continues to be talk of a wall built and wiretapping by our former president and problems in Korea North and South and what do we do with refugees all over the world? And the republicans and democrats shooting verbal volleys at each other and unable to work together.

So I have trouble imagining  images from the text:

"new heavens and a new earth" 

 

"no more shall the sound of weeping be heard"

"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,"

"They shall not hurt or destroy"

And yet that is my faith.  That is why I come to the word of God early in the morning and reflect on  my life and keep moving forward. That is why I choose hope.  It is easy to get entrenched  in what is in this moment and believe that is all that can be.  As we look back on the history of our country we can see that  - imperfect as it is at times - there is a movement toward freedom for all people.  Just watching the movie Hidden Figures reminded me of how much change in opportunity  there has been for women and people of color even during my lifetime. 

Many of us are familiar with the speech by Martin Luther King Jr - "I Have a Dream."  and it reminds me that we need to be people of imagination and vision for what can be in the future as we seek to do our part to make it so.

I looked for some images of this text and found this one and maybe the most important word here is BEHOLD!  It is saying - do you see it?  And that may be what I need to hear - not only hope and trust God's new creation but look for it.  BEHOLD and see that there is a call in this for me to do what you call ME to do to help the new creation come into being.

So my mantra for today is BEHOLD I WILL CREATE!

Here is a prayer for today by Ted Loder

 

Pry Me Off Dead Center

O persistent God,
deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.
Pressure me that I may grow more human,
   not through the lessening of my struggles,
   but through an expansion of them

  that will undamn me
  and unbury my gifts.

Deepen my hurt
  until I learn to share it
  and myself
  openly,
  and my needs honestly.

Sharpen my fears
  until I name them
  and release the power I have locked in them
  and they in me.

Accentuate my confusion
  until I shed those grandiose expectations
  that divert me from the small, glad gifts
  of the now and the here and the me.

Expose my shame wherever it shivers,
  crouched behind the curtains of propriety,
  until I can laugh at last
  through my common frailties and failures,
  laugh my way toward becoming whole.

Deliver me
  from just going through the motions
  and wasting everything I have
  which is today,
    a chance,
  a choice,
    my creativity
        your call.

O persistent God,
let how much it all matters
pry me off dead center
so if I am moved inside
  to tears

  or sighs
    or screams
      or smiles
        or dreams,
they will be real
and I will be in touch with who I am
and who you are
and who my sisters and brothers are.