“Pay attention, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I, the Lord, made you, and I will not forget you. I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing. Shout for joy, O depths of the earth! Break into song, O mountains and forests and every tree! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and is glorified in Israel.” (Isaiah 44:21-23, NLT)

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=joy&iid=5244646″ src=”a/5/4/d/two_young_children_b396.jpg?adImageId=8730976&imageId=5244646″ width=”234″ height=”234″ /]Jesus tells his followers that heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents.  This should not have been news to the Jew of Jesus’ day.  Hundreds of years before, the prophet Isaiah records the melody of joy over God’s redemptive work in Israel.

The whole forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah is worth reading again and again.  This portion is particularly mind-boggling.  God declares what he will do before Israel responds to him.  Creation is called upon to sing loudly “Joy” in the heavens, under the land and in all the geography in-between.

If the earth does indeed groan under the weight of our sin as the apostle Paul wrote, how much more does it rejoice at the grace and mercy of God applied to an undeserving people?

Joy for difficult days, thanks be to God!