September 3, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” (Genesis 21.4-7)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

And all things are made new! Think upon this promise which Paul alludes to as those in the world become those in the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5.17) We know the overall thrust of Paul’s affirmation of the work of the Holy Spirit promised to us by the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is about our mind, heart and spirit. There are evidences of physical restoration and healing which also affirm that “all things made new” can apply to physicality from time to time. However, when Jesus appears to the disciples in the Upper Room the evening of the first day of the week when He was resurrected by God the Father, He still bore the nail prints in His wrists and the wound in His side from the Roman spear. I find it interesting that we hear nothing about the imprints of the crown of thorns or the shredded body from the 39 lashes. Was Jesus healed of those cruelties? Was it important only for Him to have the nail holes and wounded side to show to His disciples that it was indeed the Lord and Savior, Jesus? We do not hear of such things in John’s Revelation as the Glorified and Resurrected Christ appears to Him as He will at the close of the Age (and for all eternity to follow). He is perfect in His appearance. We behold His glory and rejoice. Truly, by the power of love and faith, “all things are made new.”

For today’s reflection on the birth of Isaac (the laughing boy), I want us to hear that “all things were made new” for Sarah. She was 90 years old when the Lord made it possible for her to bear a son for Abraham. We do not know her condition or the reason why she would have been considered “barren.” But the God of all creation who could order the chaos of matter into all that we see in the universe today could make it possible for “the dead to be made alive.” I am certain we can imagine the atrophy involved at ninety years plus the possibility of anatomical aberrations which would have prevented her from becoming a mother. Yet, God healed her with His covenant promise. This was not the divine birth as in Mary with Jesus. This was a restoration story. It was a blessing to honor Sarah as well as showing the world the magnitude of what God has intended for those who would trust and believe. Don’t most women, when they are little girls, dream of being a mommy before they even know what it all requires? I doubt Sarah had hopes for a two-story house with a white picket fence, but I know she would have hoped for a happy home and family as would be known in her day. So, God restored her womb and brought it to life. And with it He brought the means to suckle her child. All things had to work together. She didn’t have to depend on Hagar or a surrogate mother or a milk nurse. She was a fully capable woman honored with a child to honor the man she loved for the God she had fallen in love with. It is truly a love story!

Mighty ones of God, the hope is true for us: all things will be made new. It may only be spiritually as one of the redeemed in Christ. It may be restoratively as reunited with family. It may be a healing of limbs, eyes, ears. It may be the hope of just surviving the latest disaster with an unexpected blessing. Regardless, on the Day of Our Deliverance when the trumpet will sound… we will all be transformed and made new to the glory of God, for the glory of God and for the joy of our salvation. What a day of rejoicing that will be knowing we are given the opportunity to be all we were meant to be.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.