DAY 323 - The Perfect Life

Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV) ⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. ⁷ The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. ⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah lived in a time of prosperity, but it was not like the kind of prosperity enjoyed under the days of King David and Solomon. War was a constant threat. A sense of doom laid heavy over the lives of the people that disturbed what peace and security they had. The economy was unstable, strife and conflict broke out continually among the people as each connived on how to benefit to the fullest without concern or compassion for others.

Isaiah was angry at what he saw. He fiercely denounced the greed in the peoples’ hearts and the injustices that ruled in the market place. And Isaiah was sometimes discouraged with the people of Israel, believing that their hearts could not be changed nor their eyes opened to the kind of life God wanted for them to have. But Isaiah had a dream. In the midst of a world filled with quarreling Isaiah shared this dream of a peaceable kingdom led by a little child, an agent from God. Over and over again the New Testament testifies that Jesus is the one Isaiah dreamed about. And those who met Jesus had the dream awakened in them.

Jesus awakens the dream in people. Though He did not bring in a society of perfect peace, He did make it possible for us to have perfect peace with God. To have peace with God awakens us to new possibilities in life, and makes us aware of God’s plan and purpose for this world. In Jesus, we know that God did not put us here to be realistic. He put us here to be partners with God in making some of the wildest, most outlandish and hopeful dreams about this world come true. Do we dare to dream of the kind of world God wants and believe that dream can come true?

Sometimes I am afraid that we are too accepting of our life as it is. Do we dare to dream of a better life and a better world, a world where people can live in peace and harmony with one another, cherishing mutual respect and love? Do we dare to believe that these dreams are from God and that He has the power to make them come true?

Do we hold back from our dreams from fear of being disillusioned, afraid to run the risk of being disappointed? Do you have a dream? Some wild, fantastic, unattainable dream buried deep within your soul? Consider that this dream has been planted deep within you by God, and that God has a reason for putting it there.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope march 17, 1974

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)