“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more.” Isa. 65:17–19
Jesus, I love meditating through the Servant Songs of Isaiah because they remind us you didn’t come merely to make our trip to heaven possible when we die, or to re-decorate the old Jerusalem. You came to put all things right and make all things new and beautiful—to fill the earth with your glory on the Day of your return. Hallelujah, the first Jerusalem was pregnant with the New Jerusalem. Indeed, you are the emphatic and joy “Yes!” to every promise God has made. Whatever we’ve ever thought about heaven, it’s way too small.
When you return, the New Jerusalem—the “the new heavens and new earth” (Rev.21:1-5) will be our eternal home—a place in which every semblance of sin and brokenness will be gone, and “the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more.” This new creation world itself will rejoice, we also will rejoice we will be a source of joy forever. But the biggest and most bodacious rejoicing will be yours, Jesus. You will rejoice over us and delight in us forever. Every form of evil, sorrow, death, and disease—every anti-grace anything has an expiration date. Thank you!
You will populate the new heaven and new earth with your impossible to number, every-nation Bride—daughters and sons of Abba, The Gospel really is this big and this glorious. Because of your first coming, all our sins have already been wiped away, and we are robed in your perfect righteousness. At your second coming, not only will our tears be wiped away, but all the pain behind those tears will be redeemed. Jesus… come soon, please? So Very Amen.