Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm James Banks, and I titled our reading, When Believing, is Seeing.

I can't believe what I'm seeing.

My wife, Carrie, called me to the window and pointed out an adult

doe in the woods just outside our fence, bounding from one end of our yard to the other. Keeping pace

beside her inside the fence were our large dogs, but they weren't barking. Back and forth they went for nearly an hour.

When the doe paused and faced them, the dogs stopped also, straightening their front

legs and crouching back on their haunches, ready to run again. This wasn't predator and prey

behavior. The dough and the dogs were playing together, enjoying each other's company.

To carry in me, their morning romp provided a picture of the coming kingdom of God.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims God's promise of that kingdom with the words,

See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. He goes on to say that the wolf and the lamb will

feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. No more predator, no more prey. Just friends. Isaiah's words seem to show us that there will be

animals in God's eternal kingdom. They also point to what God is preparing for his creation,

especially for those who love Him. What a beautiful place that will be.

As we trust in him by faith,

God lifts our eyes to the reality that's coming.

Peace and safety in his presence forever.

Today's our daily-bred devotional scripture reading is from Isaiah chapter 65, verses 17 through 25.

See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.

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