Listen

Look! I’m creating a new heaven and a new earth: past events won’t be remembered; they won’t come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I’m creating, because I’m creating Jerusalem as a joy and her people as a source of gladness.

Isaiah 65:17-18

Think

In a Japanese TV drama series called “Rookies,” we meet a fictional character named Kawato. He’s a school teacher whose dream is to help everyone else achieve their dreams. As he starts the year at a new school, he learns that the baseball team has become known for fighting, bullying, and even criminal activity. Students are afraid of them. Teachers and faculty despise them. Kawato wants to help them. To everyone’s surprise, he volunteers to be the new baseball coach, even though he knows nothing about the game!

Kawato asks every student he meets, “What is your dream?” Most don’t know how to answer that question! Kawato begins creating a new culture at his school, slowly helping students believe in themselves so that they will work toward their dreams.

When we read in Isaiah that God is creating a new heaven and a new earth, we might think about God’s dreams for the world. God’s dreams include love, justice, empathy, peace, and compassion. How can we join in working toward God’s dreams?

Laura Edgar

Pray

Dreaming God, open my heart to your new creation.

Open my life to others, and fill me with love and empathy.

Give me courage to dream with you and see the world as you see it.

Amen.

Go

The world is not as it should be, not as it could be, not as it will be.

Trust God’s dreams for you and the world around you.

Dream with God of what could be…