Isaiah 61:3

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."
Isaiah 61:3


This is another verse that shows how cool the Second Coming will be, rather than showing the destruction beforehand. So many times we worry in this life about injustice and unfairness and so many things that are just wrong with the world... people starving to death, people accused and punished for things they didn't do... murder, theft, sexual violence... poverty, homelessness. So many things that we live with as a society because we don't know or agree on how to stop them or fight them effectively. And here the Lord is basically saying that he will solve all of it... plus more. He's going to save us from the things that we did that were actually our fault as well. :) I love the "beauty for ashes" line. I imagine someone with nothing left, sitting in the ashes of something that she loved, or more symbolically her own ashes, and suddenly, like the phoenix, not only being made whole and able to survive, but also amazingly, stunningly beautiful. ... I think that is what the Lord does for all of us, and will do in the Last Days. Where we were just struggling for bare existence, the Lord will make us glorious. Trees of righteousness... :) Tall and strong and utterly good, belonging to the grove of God. Awesome symbolism here. Today, let's do everything we can to be those trees now. Let's repent, raise ourselves from the ashes of our sins... root ourselves in the Gospel, and raise our hearts and our whole selves to grow up to God.