“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth… Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. 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.” Isa 65:17-19
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.” Rev. 21:1
Lord Jesus, I feel like breaking out into a “turn-the-volume-up-to-11” version of Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World.” Not because I’m happy, but because you are faithful. Not because I’m a great singer, but because you are a most wonderful, merciful Savior and King.
O to see, to savor, and be seized by the great hope Isaiah and John recorded for us. Both saw the riches and reach of your work as both personal and cosmic—impacting human hearts, but also all of creation.
You have come to make your “blessings flow, far as the curse is found—everywhere there is evidence of sin and death. Not just inside of us, where “sin and sorrows grow,” but also where “thorns infest the ground.”—which is everywhere. Both “heaven and nature” are destined to sing of your glory and grace. Everything broken has an expiration date, but also a date with glorification!
You will come again to complete your nations-redeeming, cosmos-transforming work. We’ve never craved that Day more. But right now, on this way-too-hot July Sunday—right now right here and everywhere, you are ruling the world with your “grace and truth.” The “wonders of your love” are the first word, and get the final word. Hallelujah, and So Very Amen.
