The Promise of New Life, The Work of the Kingdom
"Thus says the LORD: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth… " - Isaiah 65:17
I don’t often think about the “new heavens and a new earth” God’s promises in today’s first reading. I mostly just want to make it through the day without losing my cool with our toddler and love her well. While my job often requires me to be aware of particular news, my time and energy is largely directed towards the small bubble of my personal concerns, even as it feels like we in America more irreparably tear apart this country by the day and the world in turn.
Truly, Lent feels like an appropriate season for all of humanity right now. But I’ve barely been mindful of the season, aside from trying to sit with these daily reflections when I remember to or doing a podcast prayer on my commute. It feels like God got shoved to the backseat of my life after our daughter was born, and she took the wheel. (I imagine God smiling and laughing at this, as our 2.5-year-old instructs, “Out! You want to get out!”) But, as wonderful as this wild ride can be, my formerly rich personal prayer life feels nonexistent. I rarely make it to Mass. I often feel like a dry and parched desert.
In the brief moments when I do turn to God, I ask for the grace of connection, to be aware of God’s love for me and reminded of who God is. I “seek a sign” like the Galileans in today’s Gospel, even after all that God has already done in my life. Between personal stressors and the darkness of this age, it’s difficult to have a felt sense of God. It’s understandably tempting then to give in to escapism of passively daydreaming about a “new heavens and a new earth” and leave it at that. But I know that God invites me daily to slowly be transformed personally by Love now and, in turn, do my tiny part to help bring about new life in the world. So, maybe it would do my heart some good to dwell more on that “new heavens and new earth”. Perhaps I don’t think of that promise often enough or envision it coming about in me and in the world around me.
How do you envision the “new heavens and a new earth” that God promises? What tends to occupy your mind and heart this Lent? How is God inviting you today to be part of the transforming work of the Kingdom?
Marisa