See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 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. 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
Dear heavenly Father, this imagination-fueling, heart-palpitating, mind-blowing Scripture emphasizes the size of our Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with how much money we have to spend on decorations, gifts and feasting. Isaiah’s vision of the coming of the reign of the Messiah—of the radical implications of Christmas, simply cannot be described as “merry little.” It is immeasurably and irrepressibly glorious.
Through the prophets, like Isaiah, you have made incredible promises you alone can keep, Father—promises that fix our gaze, hope and joy expectantly on Jesus—the longed for Messiah, the “desire of the ages,” the second Adam who is making all things new.
Lying in the lowly manger is the One who will one Day create “a new heaven and new earth” from the stuff of our broken world—the “new creation” world in which you will find great delight and reveal your unabated glory, and secure in a state of perfection forever (Rev. 21:1-5). It will be the Garden of Eden on steroids—far beyond what we could ever imagine or hope. We praise you for your over-the-top generosity and the bottomless ocean of your joy, mighty Father.
And through the work of the Messiah, you have also promised to redeem a family from every race, tribe, tongue, and people group to live in that eternal world of perfection and peace—a people called to belong to Jesus forever—as a beloved Bride, decked out in the wedding garments of his perfect righteousness. We praise you for the unsearchable and inexhaustible riches of your grace, merciful Father.
Lord Jesus, you have come, and you are coming again. You are the object, author, and perfecter of our faith. Because of the “it is finished” of your first Advent, we wait eagerly and burn inwardly for the realized hope of your second Advent. Until that Day, may the gospel free us to live and love missionally, knowing that our labors in the Lord are never in vain. Christmas is huge, delightfully, uncontainably, “gospeliciously” gigantic! So very Amen we pray, in your holy and loving name.