July 31, 2021 -- Isaiah 65:17-18 -- Creation Beauty and Re-creation Transcendent Splendor

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
   or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
   in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
   and her people to be gladness.”
Isaiah 65:17-18 ESV

This morning, while I was taking a lovely walk in the cool of the morning and mists were rising from the fields of corn and soy beans leaves were outlined in dew droplets, the magnificence of creation struck me again. The clouds were fantastic shapes and the sun danced between the billows, sending out dazzling rays in many directions. What beauty is contained in this world. Then as I approached my end point of the walk, I realized I’d be speaking with people experiencing brokenness. The conversations, each of them painful reminders of ruination, point out how far we are from the perfections which God intended for us. Sin has taken hold and tainted all that our LORD of Majesty has created.

Thanks be to God that our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered sin, hell and the grave. Thanks be to God that the former things He will remember no more because He Who created is now recreating and bringing us to the place of joy and gladness. When we catch glimpses of all that is exquisite here, we are reminded how much more is yet in store for us who believe. The new heavens and the new earth will be resplendent and beyond our current capabilities to describe them because the LORD has sought out sinners, the Savior has purchased by His blood and the Spirit has captured us for the blessedness of God which is planted in us now and is germinating so that new, eternal life will grow, unstoppably, into every area of our being and into every area of the redeemed people.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,

Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin
I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death, that every good work or thought
found in me thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty thy glory in my valley.
"Valley of Vision" Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Page 1

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