There Will Come a Day When God Stops Upcycling Our Lives

God is the expert at taking our messes and pain and uppcycling them into something beautiful. But there will come a day when He stops. Lisa explains.

” He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecc. 3:11).

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” (Revelation 21:4,5a).

It has been about five weeks since I had my hammer toes straightened and other bones removed from my feet when my husband how long it would take for the swelling in my foot to be “normal.”

“Months,” I replied. Having had this a couple years ago on my other foot I realize that it takes 6-12 for my toes to find their new normal. “It is a good thing you didn’t marry me for my cute feet,” I joked.

I recently chose the two scriptures above for some new watercolor pendant designs, and these two scriptures got me thinking of how God creates. Ecclesiastes says “He makes everything beautiful in His time.” When I read this it makes me think of how–despite the appearance of certain things, eventually God will do something with it.

For example, I know I will never have pretty feet. After foot surgery two years ago on my right foot I was supposed to have a decent looking foot at last. Instead, one toe decided to overlap another and the doctor said to just leave it alone because it was actually new bone growth and had already fused itself.

And my foot turns blue daily–blue enough from Raynaud’s syndrome that on Christmas Eve my sister said “we need to get you to the hospital!” So . . . no pretty feet for me. But there is beauty being able to walk. When I get up I am grateful I can put two feet on the ground. It takes time but eventually circumstances change or how we view them change.

In Revelations, however, God makes all things new. Brand new! We will be new. I won’t be Lisa 2.0. We won’t be recycled, upcyled, or renovated. We won’t be refurbished, restored, or rehabilitated. It will be as if there was never sin–which includes fear, grief, anger–none of it.

Prayer: Lord, it is hard to imagine truly being brand new. When I look at the years of medications, therapies, surgeries, and other efforts to giving me a body that does not have wear, I consider the body you will give me some day. But my dreams are often as simple as the freedom to move without pain, the absence of some of the limitations. I can’t comprehend having a body that is brand new and a spirit that has not known pain. Thank You for this incomprehensible gift. May I cling to it in comfort on hard days. Amen.

About the author:
Lisa Copen founded Rest Ministries in 1996 and has lived with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia since 1993. As her disease has progressed to a new normal this year she is struggling to know how to continue to hope for more decades of joy, while also recognizing that her body will continue to break down at a fast pace unless the Lord intervenes. She continues to search out joy in RM, her husband who runs Gutsy Goodness, their jewelry business, and homeschooling her son.

When you compare the 2 scriptures above about “everything beautiful in its time” and God making “all things new” what reflections do you have?