Pause

The best gifts are those received from someone who knows us well. These are the kinds of gifts that we celebrate with great gladness!

Take time to consider the gifts you have received from the One who knows you best, and celebrate God's great goodness and generosity.

Listen

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 62:1-5

Think

When so many couples divorce today, it’s hard sometimes to imagine what Scripture means with such an intimate picture of believers married to their Maker. In our broken society, we know the heartbreak, desolation, and loneliness — all those things that are the exact opposite of the picture in today’s text. Here God declares us glorious, saying, “I’m a God who will protect you and take away your brokenness and loneliness.”

Our God is the God who wants to declare our worth to the world. God wants to treat us like royalty. When God marries us, the Lord means forever.

When we see so many broken relationships around us — some in our own families — to have a God who takes such delight in us may be a difficult idea to wrap our heads around. Yet God truly does delight in us. God celebrates us. Will you also celebrate the Lord? Yahweh will be faithful, even when the rest of the world is not.

Laura Rector

Pray

Lord, thank you for being faithful when the world is faithless. Thank you for seeing me as glorious. Amen.

Go

Open your heart now as you would a brightly-wrapped package,
Confident that the Giver of Life has provided you the greatest gift,
The gift of life.
Live today as a celebration, a time of giving back—
To God
And to all the world.