Morning Devotional 052125 God Makes All Things Beautiful

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

  May 21, 2025

Isaiah 52:7-10

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of a messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God rules!” 8 Listen! Your lookouts lift their voice; they sing out together! Right before their eyes they see the LORD returning to Zion. 9 Break into song together, you ruins of Jerusalem! The LORD has comforted his people and has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm in view of all the nations; all the ends of the earth have seen our God’s victory.

Good Morning! Praise the Lord for our deliverance!

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of a messenger who proclaims peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God rules!”

Isaiah restores hope as God blesses him with the prophecy announcing the coming of the Messiah. Jerusalem lies in ruins, but the time for renewal is coming.

This past week, my family and I decided to put together a 1000-piece puzzle during their visit. At first, they chastised me for my puzzle options. When I chose these puzzles, I picked scenes I liked, and I had not considered how difficult they would be to construct. 

I had two puzzles, each with 1000 pieces. The one they reluctantly chose was a collage of landmarks and homes in San Francisco. We started as most do, finding and then assembling the edge pieces. That first night, we went to bed with one “missing” piece and three connected pieces that didn’t seem to fit our available space. 

All we could see was a city in “ruins”, and our task seemed daunting. We grumbled and struggled for the first couple of days as we stared, searched, moved around, and put together some of the bigger features. As with all puzzle-building attempts, there are times you are ready to give up and times to walk away for a bit. 

Sunday evening, Elaine placed and was able to connect the bigger features we had assembled into their places within the puzzle border. Suddenly, there was an inkling of hope that we could restore the broken landscape. Despite the big pieces being in place, there were so many pieces to arrange. 

I love it when you get to the point that those pieces that seemed to be impossible to find suddenly stand out waiting to be found. It’s as if they light up and say, “Here I am!” Finally, we were down to the final pieces, and suddenly everything made sense, and the puzzle was completed. 

Our faith journey resembles the ups and downs that we encountered along our puzzle construction. We start with great hope as we begin a new adventure, but then we run into challenges, and we begin to falter and lose hope. By God’s grace, we receive some help and encouragement along the way. 

We begin to make progress as we overcome the small bumps and debris that litter our path. Slowly, we begin to see the light flickering in the distance, and our hope begins to well up within us. Suddenly, we find what is missing and rejoin together. 

On the day when God calls us home, suddenly the missing pieces will appear, everything will make sense, and the puzzle will be completed. In the meantime, we keep picking up pieces and arranging them as God reveals glimpses of our future glory to maintain our hope. 

Loving Lord, Maker of all things! We become frustrated when we can only take one step at a time! We want everything now. Help us remember that all things worth having take time. Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: God makes everything beautiful in his time!

Keep working to put the pieces in place! Pastor Liz