By the time you read this devotional, the 2016 election season will at last have reached its conclusion. But as we wake up this morning and take stock of the decisions the American electorate has made, the things that were revealed about our nation in the course of this campaign are no less true.
We remain a nation divided—not only by political affiliation, but by race, class, gender, origin, religion, and more. We remain a nation where pain fuels fear, and fear fuels hate, and hate fuels brutality, and brutality fuels yet more pain. We remain a nation where women, and LGBT people, and people of color are not treated as full citizens, are not treated as full reflections of God’s image, are made less safe by vitriol and violence.
We remain a nation, in other words, that sorely needs the promise of the prophet Isaiah. Speaking to another struggling nation, centuries ago and worlds away, Isaiah prophesied of a new realm to come where all the suffering of the present day would be transformed into joy and delight. Lives would be long and fruitful. Coexistence would be gentle and peaceful. All would be made new; all would be made well.
No matter how you may feel about yesterday’s results, the question for us, as Christians on the morning after, is this: where is God’s promise alive in our hearts and in our communities, and how will we help it come true? Regardless of the outcome of the election, the call of our faith is the same: to be co-creators with God and to nurture God’s realm into being.
So pause from whatever pundit’s analysis you were reading or watching or listening to, and take a deep breath. Let your eyes become the prophet’s eyes. Picture with Isaiah a world free from poverty and suffering and pain, a world full of justice and reconciliation and joy. That is the new world that is dawning, even now, and thanks be to God, we get to be part of it. |
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For I am about to create new heavens