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 (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.