But God has promised new heavens and a new earth

2 Peter 3:4, 10-14 Scoffers will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? . . . But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. . . . What holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”

“If you could ask God for anything, what would you ask?”

The question came from Adriana, in a hilarious “spin the bottle” game that suddenly took a serious turn. Idagly responded, “I would ask for justicia in Venezuela.”

“Justicia” means both justice and righteousness. “What do you see happening in Venezuela right now that is good?” I wondered.

“The return of hope!” her husband Otto exclaimed, with a light in his eyes. “Guaidó has given us hope for freedom, for a new beginning. Last year the national mood was despair, and even apathy. Now, we have a vision that things could actually change, that we could actually be freed from our enslavement to the current corrupt government. We don’t know how long it will take, but we believe it will happen!”

Otto is far right, with Idagly in red next to Adriana center front (photo May 23, 2019)

The next day, on a walk down one of Bogotá’s busy avenues, I asked Idagly more about what she longed to see happen in her broken country. “I hope the young people will come back,” she responded. “We will need them in the reconstruction.”

“When the time of reconstruction comes . . .”

I heard Idagly use this phrase several times during our days together last week. I had not heard her say that before. It illustrates the renewed hope she nurtures. It’s a parable for me of the hope we have not just for Venezuela, but for the whole world: the hope that Jesus will return and make everything right. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, with Idagly we can say “when,” not if—with a light in our eyes.