A New Creation

By Nick Batzig

They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain…
– Isaiah 65:23-25

Think of it.

One day this will be reality.
It will be the new familiar taste on your tongue,
the feel on young fingertips,
like that soft light when dusk kisses the evening sky.
It will be sound like songs we have not yet heard
but have known the tune by heart from the cradle.
But on that side of the grave.
Our noses will fill with all the fragrance of joy to be gathered
like a child gathers wildflowers to adorn her hair.
And the sight will fill our eyes
and we will not be able to gather our wits about us
for all the beauty before us.

Just think of it.

Nothing will be done without meaning.
Every moment. Every idea.
Nothing is a crumb left behind.
Nothing is nothing.
We will work and love the work for all it is.
No vain thing will abide.

Every voice will find purchase like a beggar that begs no more.
Every word will join with His will.
The groaning replaced with laughter like prayer.

And we will die no more.
Did you hear me?
We will die no more.
The death has been done with.
It staggers the mind the way a man staggered to the dying tree.
So that death is now done.
No blood spilled.
No bodies laid open and killed.

Think of it.

When the night is darker than blackness wrapped in oblivion –
When the hopes are not even pinpricks of light in the distance –
When the pulses slow and the breathing is rapid –
When the entropic forces remind you where home is –
When the work and your muscles say “all is vanity” –
When the loneliness is a coffin on the floor of the sea –
When the violence of guns and lips break open so much flesh –

Think of it.

Till you have swollen with hope for the risen One,
Who has pushed through the darkness and entered into the eternal hope
and awaits all of us who hope.

Just think of it.

 Written by Matthew B. Redmond