It is not easy to follow the news in our days. Waves of injustice sweep our imagination and challenge our ideas about hope. A world in which people can just be who they are created to be seems to be only a distant dream. Pessimism has a crushing grip on us. Speeches of desolation are everywhere and, apparently, there is no place to go. Has God forgotten us? Is he laying down his punishment? Is this what life is about?

The triple answer of the prophet is no, no, and no. In his oracle to Jerusalem, Isaiah reminds his people that their God still cares. He heard their crying and came to help them and to bring them comfort. The price of their sins has been paid and their iniquities are no longer held against them. In Jesus, the same is true for us, and God is still making all things new! In God’s good world there will be no injustice. The world as we see now is an unfinished version of this new world that Jesus is creating. So, as we read the news and they challenge our peace, we can now respond with confidence, “This is not the whole story.”