I guess I could get my June postings going by talking about how wonderful it is to wake up to a refreshing 57-degrees this late in the year – but you’d think I was bragging about what a great place Wake Forest is to live.
Or, I could remind you to check out yesterday’s “May in 31 Photographs” post so you could take in more of the beauty that seems to saturate our lives – but I know some folk would dismiss my viewpoint as Pollyanna.
So I won’t say either of those things! Instead, we will get June launched via:
1) The following scripture from Isaiah 11 (you will want to read all nine verses – I will paste them in at the end of the post) and…
2) This smile from my grandson Geoffrey.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
Isaiah 11:1-10
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the young lion will feed together,
and a little child will lead them.
This entire passage (Isaiah 11:1-9) talks about a kind of idyllic world. A lot of Christians insist that we are headed – inevitably – toward destruction, and that salvation is all about going to heaven after we die. But I think salvation has a lot to do with the here and now too.
Salvation – and please forgive me if you think I make this point too often – is about us (that’s you and me) responding positively to Christ’s invitation to join in with God’s ongoing initiatives of love, peace, grace, light, mercy, justice, redemption, hope, and more.
Sure, I believe that eternity is a thing, and that there is some continuity of experience after we leave this life. But salvation is very much now!
What I am saying is that I believe movement toward The Peaceable Kingdom Isaiah talks about in this scripture is a vision of the possible, of what God intends for this Good Earth, not pie in the sky.
What I am saying is that we only have to look at a photograph like this one of Geoffrey to understand that beauty and light and perfection and joy and peace and unbounded love are at the heart of The Creator’s intention for us and we must, we absolutely have to, throw ourselves into the business of “Thy Kingdom Come” without reservation and without doubt and without unbelief.
They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.
Isaiah 11:9-10
The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,
just as the water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling will be glorious.
No, not Pollyanna, but absolutely our responsibility to work towards as people who have been born anew into the love and purposes of Jesus.
“And the earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord just as the water covers the sea” – DEREK