The Glory of the Lord
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Isaiah 60:1-22, Isaiah 61:1-11, Matthew 25:31-46
BY Kaitlin Wernet
Text: Isaiah 60:1-22, Isaiah 61:1-11, Matthew 25:31-46
My grandmother’s Sunday best was almost always paired with a favorite accessory—her geese pin. Given to her by my grandfather decades prior, it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I learned the meaning behind it: geese are birds that mate for life. The pin represented his vow to her, a promise he kept.
The cherished pin, brass with two geese flying in the same direction, is one I saw my grandmother wear many times as she sat in the front row of the church pews, watching my grandfather as he sang solos in the church choir. It’s what she wore during their 50th wedding anniversary party, smiling as they snapped a picture together under the backyard tree that had witnessed their marriage blossom. It could be found pinned to her black dress on the day of my grandfather’s funeral, and on her shirt most of the days that followed.
Although my grandmother was usually in the kitchen making a coconut cake while my grandfather was picking bell peppers from his garden, they were always in hollering distance from one another. They came as a packaged deal. On the rare occasion you’d see them apart, maybe in the grocery store or on a fishing boat, their contribution to any conversation was always spent bragging on and missing the other. After my grandfather was gone, I think the geese pin helped my grandmother follow the routine they’d established together. It was a prized piece of jewellry, displaying the treasure of their union.
Isaiah also proudly displays a prized possession: the picture he’s been given of final glory. He rarely describes people and God as separated because his sight is set on the vision of being united. On the rare occasion he does see them apart, in our earthly aching and hoping, he doesn’t stop seeing us in the light of God’s radiance. We have been given a similar promise to that of the geese: eternal life together with Him. It is God’s covenant to us, one He will keep—the unity that was and is and will be again, forever.
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord shines over you.
For look, darkness covers the earth,
and total darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will shine over you,
and His glory will appear over you.
-Isaiah 60:1-2
Isaiah’s words help us look forward to heavenly things, but they do more than that. They give us a lens to look through in the meantime. Yes, the Lord will shine over us, and His glory will appear over us for eternity. Hallelujah! But until then, friends, let us not overlook the current rays of light, for they will only continue to grow and stretch and expand. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines over you. His glory is radiating daily, currently, actively.
Like my sweet grandmother’s pin, Isaiah’s words are a remembrance of what we have and what we can look forward to. May we bask in the rays of His glory, for we know we’ll see them shining fully soon.
51 thoughts on "The Glory of the Lord"
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My life has been challenging to say the least for the last year and a half. I have diagnosed with breast cancer at 31 in Jan. of 2016. I underwent chemo, radiation, a bilateral mastectomy, and a hysterectomy. I’m BRCA-1 positive so my body likes frowning tumors (for lack of a better way to explain it). During this time all this was happening, my husband was battling acoholism. I kicked him out of the house at one point for endangering our 2 year old son. Thankfully he has been steadfast in healing and has been sober for 8 months. However, that and a host of other issues, coast him his job back in January of this year. Our medical bills continue to pile up and he continues to struggle in finding a job. All that being said, my life hasn’t had many rays of sunshine in it. After reading this devotional yesterday and opening up 6,000 dollars of new medical bills, I asked God for help. I’ve been asking him for this help for some time and I have felt abandoned and lost. I didn’t know what to listen for or what to look for. I didn’t know how to hear him. I want to follow his path but I didn’t know how to do that. Well after my prayers last night, I awoke to the idea of starting a gofundme.com page. I battled with the idea. My pride strongly saying no but I felt in my heart it was God telling me to do this. So after hours of debate I did it. And in just 8 hours, the wonderful people in my life have raised almost half of what I need. He is there. He is listening. It’s His plan and His timing. I know it’s been said a million times and I knew I had to wait for it but oh how good it is when you feel his love. Thank you sisters as I have struggled to feel a connection with God. Your thoughts, ideas and voices have helped me stay the course. I am blessed to read your thoughts daily. Thank you for welcoming me into your community.
If you’d like to support me or read more about my battle, you can visit http://www.gofundme.com/mollys-cancer-supportThank you!
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And you really should proofread what you write!
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What an encouraging reflection today! It’s so comforting that we can look ahead and know that He’s coming, know we will be able to spend eternity praising Him!!!
http://www.littlelightonahill.com
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What a lovely picture of two people living and loving together through our Lord, “the geese pin! I pray that God will send me someone who will love me until “death do us part”. What a beautiful testament of Gods love for us, his love that will never walk away!
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Thankful that we get a choice of what lens we are going to look through. I choose to look through the lens of Christ, not the lens of my circumstances.
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For the past few years I have been trying to live my life according to my dreams, my wants and not what God wants. I have been so confused on my direction, but recently I found a great article that was titled “What you are doing wrong to move forward.” This was so enlightening. When I read it, I just thought to myself, God you move in mysterious ways!! Well during this time, I had applied for a job, thinking that’s where I needed to be, that was the perfect job and this was it. I am moving on, finally!! Well I got a phone call yesterday and I did not get the job. When you think you know where to go in life and think you are on track, God will push you even further to where HE thinks you need to be. This passage was perfect for me to read today. He is working everyday to make us a child of His and where we can use our abilities for Him and serve others in the process. Do not settle on where you are or on where you think you need to be to be comfortable in life. God does not want us comfortable. He wants us to be challenged, be better than we were yesterday and to work harder to be a child of His that he is proud to look at on this Earth. I can just imagine standing in front of God on that day of judgement and Him knowing all my flaws and sins and Him still loving me. Without His guidance I would not be where I am not nor where I will be in the future. He knows better than I do my life and my life’s purpose. Amen!
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Amen! I’m in a similar circumstance–while waiting for my “dream job” to come through (2 months after I interviewed), I received a phone call for another job. Immediately I thought it was a distraction, but came to see it was even better than the first, in so many ways. Only my Jesus, me Shepherd, could do this. Praying you know His voice and leading during this time! Lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways acknowledge Him!
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Thank you for that!! Congrats to you and I wish you well with your new job!!
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Lord I pray for all of those who can’t see beyond the current darkness they are facing today.. I ask You to break through the thick dark wall of pain, disappointment, fear, whatever the ailment is that inhibits seeing You clearly.. may the current circumstances that hinder a clear view of You be lifted.. may Your presence be felt and Your promises be claimed.. this life is a vapor of smoke appearing for a time and then vanishing.. help the suffering saints to see beyond what seems so hopeless and so hard.. please replace sorrow with joy unspeakable.. in the life giving and sustaining name of Jesus I pray.. amen
Friend.. you are not forgotten!! Hold tight to His promises!!!! xoxo-
Oh my tears. Your prayer is right to my heart. Thank you for sharing your words
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me too- thank you Diane for that prayer.
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Thank you for that prayer, Diane. It moved me to tears.
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Loved this reading and its devotional this morning. I read Isaiah 60 and 61 all in the present tense – meaning God will make all of this come to pass in my life right now. He will shine over me, give me riches and joy. Why will he do these things? Because I have mended my relationship with Him by committing to our relationship. I remember that he is the one responsible for all my blessings. And when people try to exalt me, I don’t take credit. I say, “thank you, but it wasn’t all me. It was mostly God.”
And they will be righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify him. Isaiah 61:3. That is our purpose. To have a daily, committed, loving, public relationship with God. And not because you *have* to or because you’re *supposed* to. Because you’re actually truly happy in your relationship with him. You love glorifying him. It comes naturally. Just like the author’s grandparents!
It goes back to Song of Solomon. God is your husband and you spend time with him every day, seek to understand him better, you enjoy his company and you love him. He does the same for us. He seeks us out, protects us, shows his appreciation and love. That’s the relationship God seeks with us.
And I really, really love how they paired Matthew 25 with this Isaiah reading. Because Isaiah says, when you have this kind of relationship with God, you will be blessed in mega ways. And then Matthew follows up saying this glorifying God and God glorifying you isn’t about your ego or God’s (nonexistent) ego. God blesses you so that you may glorify Him by being a blessing to others. It’s like a Holy circle of love. You love God. God loves you. You share some of this love with others. And I am so here for it!
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Loved this!!
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