March 19th, 2026
Thursday, March 19
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. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 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 11:6-9
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. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 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 11:6-9
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Being a prophetic witness begins with hope. Hope is the great act of imagination that questions what is perceived to be “real.” Hope is not optimism. Most of us have heard that. But it seems easy to turn hope into optimistic thinking: I’m hopeful things will turn out in the end. Or we might say that we’re hopeful based on current circumstances. The thoughtfulness of today’s youth makes me hopeful for the future.
The hope of the prophetic witness is not based on how things seem to be trending. The hope of the prophetic witness dares to imagine a reality and a future that is totally different from what seems true all around. It’s an outlook that refuses to accept how things currently are. But we can’t just imagine something new; we must have it proclaimed to us.
Several weeks ago, we encountered hope. While at Mayo clinic meeting with a specialist, we were told there is a surgery that most likely will correct our daughter Jaya’s double vision. I wept. In the office. The doctor compassionately smiled. He knew the hope he just spoke. We had heard of some sort of surgery that might be useful, but we had not had it proclaimed to us with such certainty ("most likely" is best doctors can say, even if they want to say something with 100% confidence. Insurance, you know....).
This proclamation came from a specialist who knows eyes and the brain and how they work. He knew what needed to be done and he could do it. And, he will do it.
Unless you’ve walked in such dark hopelessness, you have no idea how this changes things. And this wasn’t based on some hypothesis or optimism. It is based on the fact that this doctor has done this before.
Isaiah witnesses to a reality that makes no sense in the world as it is known. The wolf and the lamb? The leopard and the goat? Not predator and prey? It is the proclamation of circumstances that are nearly unimaginable. In fact the normal categories no longer apply.
These are words of hope, of a new reality that will break into the world only by God’s action. And God has done this before. This is the prophetic story of the God who births hope and makes all things new. All of the time. In creation, he brought life, beauty, and order from chaos, darkness, and nothingness. For Abraham, he birthed life and a future from a darkened, lifeless womb and old age. For the people of Israel, he brought a future and hope where everything seemed lost and destroyed and beyond repair – a new growth from a cut-down tree (Isaiah 11:1-10).
We are witnesses to such prophetic hope, friends. The stories of Scripture are not there to give us morals or answers. They are there to tell us the story so that we might live according to it. It’s the prophetic imagination of resurrection and new creation from lives that cannot seem to be further from God and God’s good purposes. Hope shines brightest where everything seems darkest. We are prophetic witnesses to this reality.
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For reflection:
Prayer: God of hope, we need hope beyond what we can imagine. And we need faith to trust ourselves to you, the God who creates hope. By your Spirit, remind us of what you have done, so that we will be inspired by the hope of what you promise to do. Amen.
Being a prophetic witness begins with hope. Hope is the great act of imagination that questions what is perceived to be “real.” Hope is not optimism. Most of us have heard that. But it seems easy to turn hope into optimistic thinking: I’m hopeful things will turn out in the end. Or we might say that we’re hopeful based on current circumstances. The thoughtfulness of today’s youth makes me hopeful for the future.
The hope of the prophetic witness is not based on how things seem to be trending. The hope of the prophetic witness dares to imagine a reality and a future that is totally different from what seems true all around. It’s an outlook that refuses to accept how things currently are. But we can’t just imagine something new; we must have it proclaimed to us.
Several weeks ago, we encountered hope. While at Mayo clinic meeting with a specialist, we were told there is a surgery that most likely will correct our daughter Jaya’s double vision. I wept. In the office. The doctor compassionately smiled. He knew the hope he just spoke. We had heard of some sort of surgery that might be useful, but we had not had it proclaimed to us with such certainty ("most likely" is best doctors can say, even if they want to say something with 100% confidence. Insurance, you know....).
This proclamation came from a specialist who knows eyes and the brain and how they work. He knew what needed to be done and he could do it. And, he will do it.
Unless you’ve walked in such dark hopelessness, you have no idea how this changes things. And this wasn’t based on some hypothesis or optimism. It is based on the fact that this doctor has done this before.
Isaiah witnesses to a reality that makes no sense in the world as it is known. The wolf and the lamb? The leopard and the goat? Not predator and prey? It is the proclamation of circumstances that are nearly unimaginable. In fact the normal categories no longer apply.
These are words of hope, of a new reality that will break into the world only by God’s action. And God has done this before. This is the prophetic story of the God who births hope and makes all things new. All of the time. In creation, he brought life, beauty, and order from chaos, darkness, and nothingness. For Abraham, he birthed life and a future from a darkened, lifeless womb and old age. For the people of Israel, he brought a future and hope where everything seemed lost and destroyed and beyond repair – a new growth from a cut-down tree (Isaiah 11:1-10).
We are witnesses to such prophetic hope, friends. The stories of Scripture are not there to give us morals or answers. They are there to tell us the story so that we might live according to it. It’s the prophetic imagination of resurrection and new creation from lives that cannot seem to be further from God and God’s good purposes. Hope shines brightest where everything seems darkest. We are prophetic witnesses to this reality.
________________________________________
For reflection:
- Read Isaiah 11:1-10. What does it mean to hope? What unimaginable things are at the center of your hope? What things of God’s future do you most hope for? How can God’s promises of hope change how you live today?
- For those with kids: Talk about what it means to hope for something that you can’t see or imagine. Maybe talk about how hope for what God can and will do in the world can change how we live.
Prayer: God of hope, we need hope beyond what we can imagine. And we need faith to trust ourselves to you, the God who creates hope. By your Spirit, remind us of what you have done, so that we will be inspired by the hope of what you promise to do. Amen.
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