When Monday follows a sweet weekend of rich feasting on and with family, it can feel a little dreary, even on a beautiful sunny day. But this morning I am choosing to rejoice and delight, egged on by a wonderful passage of Scripture it is my privilege to study and write about. Read it with me and be glad as God commands but also gives reason…
“Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 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.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
he who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere youth;
he who fails to reacha a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by theLord,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
For reflection: what stories in your life are you NOT rejoicing over today? How will the tears and sorrow of those stories be changed in the new heavens and new earth? Ask God to encourage your heart with patience as you wait.
