kingdom presence

Monday April 21^st, Jeremiah 31: "Once again you will use your tambourines to celebrate. You will go out and dance with joy. Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. Farmers will plant them. They will enjoy their fruit. There will be a day when those on guard duty will cry out. They will stand on the hills of Ephraim. And they will shout, 'Come! Let's go up to Zion. Let's go up to where the Lord our God is.' " Won’t it be a wonderful day when peace among the children of God will be in the land and the children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael and the followers of Jesus and we all go up to the hill together, once and for all accepting one another as brothers and sisters in the family of God?  Won’t it be a wonderful day when the children of God grow up and give up the childish ways of bickering and fighting and recognize that all our differences only reflect the vastness of love of a loving God and father of us all who calls for us to simply get along?  Won’t it be great on that day when we gather on the hills of Ephraim and shout not insults to one another but invitations to come and gather as one people and recognize that the Lord our God is indeed the Lord and God of all?  Won’t it be great?  Until that day, work for the kingdom presence in the world, work for peace and justice.