阅读经文 

你有没有想过你的将来是什么样子的呢？我有想过。我曾思想过关于世界末日的预测是否真实、以及我们能否找到创造更美好未来的途径。但是，我若只看我自己和我现在所知道的一切，我实在不能时常都寄望于未来可期。有些问题似乎无法解决，因我有足够的理由为现实感到沮丧。

然而，神却给了我们很多持守希望的理由。第一，神爱祂的创造，包括我们在内。神差遣祂的儿子来救赎我们，启示我们更美好的生活方式，就是神的国。神赐我们赦免和新生命：祂不单赦免我们，祂更赐我们一个崭新的未来，这是藉着耶稣基督得以成就的。使徒保罗说，我们若“在基督里”，旧事已过，都变成新的了。（参林后 5:17）在启示录二十一章第5节，我们看到神“将一切都更新了”。

以赛亚使用非常实际的例子来描绘神将要带来的更新。人类的寿数增加；婴孩不会夭亡；人能住在自己的家中；他们能享用自己努力的成果、而不单是为别人的益处劳碌；将来会有和平到来——甚至自然界中彼此敌对的生物也会彼此合睦。

这幅关于将来的图画是多么美丽，神现今已经邀请我们参与到其中了。

Have you ever wondered what the future will be like? I do. I wonder if doomsday forecasts will come true or whether we will find pathways toward a better future. If I look only to myself and what I know now, I am not always especially hopeful. Some problems seem impossible to solve, and reasons to feel gloomy abound.

But God gives us many good reasons to be hopeful. First, God loves his creation, including us. God sent his Son to redeem us and to show us a better way of life, the kingdom way. God offers us forgiveness and new life: more than pardon, this is the gift of a new future made possible through Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says that when we are "in Christ", the old is gone and the new has come (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). And in Revelation 21:5 we read that God is "making everything new".

Isaiah paints a picture of God’s new future in very practical terms. People will live long. Infant mortality will be gone. People will stay in their own homes. They will reap the rewards of their labor, not toiling merely for the benefit of others. There will be peace—so much so that even natural enemies will cooperate.

That’s a beautiful picture of the future into which God invites us already today.