“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.” (Amos 9:13)
In the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy longed for a better home. After all, life in Kansas during the dustbowl of the 1930s Great Depression was dismal. Poverty, hunger, and death were daily realities. The drought meant Dorothy probably had not seen a rainbow in years. Still, she sang about a perfect life beyond the rainbow, a land where your dreams come true.
After generations of ignoring warnings, the Israelites had two options left: continue sinning and be destroyed, or repent and barely survive. God promised to restore the survivors to live in their homeland with people they didn’t like. That option didn’t sound great at first. The temptation to sink into denial or depression was real. However, Amos painted a picture of their restoration that was so bright that it outshined the prior bleakness. In the restored kingdom, the harvest would be so abundant that they would still be reaping crops when planting season came. They would enjoy their wine and gardens and never be uprooted from their homes again.
No pandemic has lasted forever. Throughout human history, by God’s grace, every crisis has an end. These last years have been bleak, but the days are coming when God will restore heaven and earth. If we hang on to hope by following Jesus, we’ll reach the land where our dreams really do come true.
Restore your hope by focusing on the unseen future promised by God.
Tamar Eisenmann and her husband are Wesleyan pastors from Michigan. She’s a Wesley Seminary doctoral student and a fan of Transformers, her kids, and Jesus.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
