highway

Roads and paths tend to capture my imagination. They catch my eye – when I see an interesting road or winding path I want to follow it, to see where it takes me, to find out what’s at the end. I imagine all kinds of interesting places and maybe even the opportunity for adventure.

This morning I read about a road that I really would like to take.  Isaiah 35:5-10 says, 

“Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

And a highway will be there;

it will be called the Way of Holiness;

it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

wicked fools will not go about on it.

No lion will be there,

nor any ravenous beast;

they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

and those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing . . . .”

Imagine, a road for those who follow Jesus! This road will certainly take me on a spectacular journey. I can’t even begin to imagine what I’ll see and experience there. I’m hoping I can walk it – I find that I see so much more, and get a much better feel of the landscapes and neighborhoods, when I walk. It would be a pity to zoom down the Way of Holiness.

And I won’t be alone – this is the highway that Jesus followers will travel, and maybe even Jesus himself. Good companions make for good journeys.

This is a prophesy of the new earth, after the return of Jesus. It offers a glimpse of what the longest part of my existence, what we call the after-life, will be like. It makes me eager.

Watch and wait.