by Sarah Tucker | Mar 11, 2021 | Life Advice, Love |
I woke up with this feeling deep down inside of me that I couldn’t ignore or simply shake off. I couldn’t sit here and try to come up with something better to write about or different to share. It feels elementary and so simple and extraordinarily obvious, but here we are. Reasons why I love You. Jesus Jesus Jesus.
Here’s how this is going to work — I’m going to share ten things I love about Jesus and pray that they encourage your heart, open your eyes, and you see Him as this in your own life, and I’m going to ask you to do the same. Grab a pen and paper, say it out loud, make a note on your phone, text it to a friend, add it to your story. Do whatever you need to do to get it from your insides to your outsides. Make agreements with truth, thank God for who He is to you, set your heart, and fix your gaze. It’s March now. So many things are so different, I’m sure, and yet seemingly the same. New years don’t erase the old and time doesn’t always heal the wounds and sickness and heartache and school and work and business and (you name it here!!) still exists. But so does Jesus. The One who makes everything “different”. Everything new. Everything lovely. Jesus. Who, seamlessly, stays the same. Perfect and worthy, loving and kind.
- I love that Jesus is SO real and near and with me. I LOVE His presence.
- That in who He is and how He loves us, He blows every expectation we could ever set out of the water. I’m amazed by Jesus.
- I love that who He is makes me whole. Everything I lack (which is everything without him haha!) I find in Him. I find me as he intended me to be, when I’m with him.
- I love that where He is, there is always more – more peace, more joy, more love, more freedom, more laughter, more hope.
- He is WAY cooler than we think – I mean come on y’all!
- That he knows me (really knows me, every thought I’ve ever had and thing I’ve ever done) and loves me, all of me, FULLY, even still.
- I love his personality – I love thinking about people I love. My friends and family — how FUNNY they are, how there are specific things about each of them that I treasure, and then to think that we get our personality from Him… what a GREAT personality he must have. If only we really knew!!
- That He’s always there – the best friend I could ever ask for. My comforter, my love, my companion, my defender, the champion of my cause. Hand to hold and heart to rest in.
- That he is so into every detail. The past few months I’ve gotten to know him as my intimate redeemer. Things that people may or may not ever know about me, He knows. He redeems and restores back to better than ever before in ways I never could have imagined. If you’re waiting on a redemption story, it’s already here. His name is Jesus.
- He is who He is. Constant and steadfast. Faithful and true. We never have to wonder what version we’ll get that day or if he’ll feel differently about us tomorrow. No matter what room we walk into, how we feel, or any other circumstance that may change. He is who He is.
I just love Him and he just loves us.
He IS in the purest form.
My every good thing.
What do you love about Jesus? Tell him. Tell him how much. Pour out your heart to Him and let His love restore your soul.
Thank you Jesus.
Sarah Tucker is the owner of Imago Dei in Franklin and Nashville, TN, where the heart behind the shop is to point people back to Jesus and serve as a reminder to everyone who visits that they are made in the image of God. She loves drinking coffee, long country drives, and spending time with her friends and family! Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahatucker
**We at Live Original absolutely LOVE Imago Dei. Everything from the clothes to the heart behind the store is dear to our hearts. Check out their website HERE!
by Sarah Tucker | Nov 10, 2020 | Life Advice, Testimonies
To be known by the Father, what a beautiful thing.
It’s no secret that “not much” has been going on these past few months, wouldn’t you agree? Definitely more so now than before, but thinking back to just a few months ago, there were no trips, no hangs, no church, no classes, no work, no school, no vacations, no concerts, no girls nights in anything other than sweats, and no normal. Thankfully things are slowly getting back (thank you Jesus and praying for a continuation of it!!) but life itself is far from it. We’ll never know that “normal” again but y’all, I’m not so sure that we should want to. Anyways, during that specific time, if you were to ask anyone what they’ve been up to or what’s new?! You could pretty much bet that their answer would sound something along the lines of ‘oh you know… not much!!’ and we all know that’s the truest thing that any of us could have said! I know for me, I loved to answer with everything I had done in a day but after listing off what I made for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, who won our family game of scrabble that day, and how many walks I took with my sister, I would finish with ‘so yeah, really nothing’ and laugh. Hello, 2020. But what quickly became my favorite question to ask and be asked was this…
What’s God doing in my heart? What’s God doing in yours?
I feel my focus shift anytime this is asked. My thoughts, all my attention, my adoration. Dang, I don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to miss Him moving, breathing life, restoring, redeeming, simply and extravagantly being who He is because I don’t take the time to pause and think, God what is it that you’re doing? Because I want to partner with You, lean in, and find myself there. Wherever you are is where I want to be and found nowhere apart from that place.
This weekend Gracie and I were road tripping back from Louisiana and I got to thinking man, what is God doing inside of me right now? I was reminded of a specific morning spent with Jesus on my porch. It was early, foggy, and crisp. The leaves were starting to change and slowly fall to the ground. To be so honest, I’d been struggling with feeling hard hearted for a few weeks leading up to this day. Like I couldn’t think or see straight, I’d felt distracted and distant from the voice and heart of God. I had been remembering things I thought I’d forgotten, things that had hurt me in the past, and feeling things I thought I would never feel again because God had healed me of those wounds that once cut so deep. I was thinking things I haven’t thought in years and making silent agreements with the enemy about things that I knew were not true about who God says I am. I was frustrated to say the least, because hello God, don’t you know I’ve been there and done that? As if God can’t come back and touch what’s His? Ooof. I wanted to be tough and okay and tried and tried to be just that, but as a result felt like I had developed calluses on my heart from striving so hard.
I looked to my right and saw a giant heart shaped leaf beside me and seconds later, another one fell from the big tree behind the porch a few feet from where I was sitting and felt God whisper to my weary heart, you give me yours, I’ll give you mine. I had to get up and go get it though. I had to trade mine for His. Ones brown and crunchy and the others colors are vibrant and full of life. Ones tired from trying and ones so effortlessly offering the life He desires for me to have, the one His son died for me to live. One’s been broken and stepped on and maybe even kicked around in the hustle and bustle of life and the other is just offering me His own… Friends, God gives us a new heart, He gives us His. I took Him up on the invitation to give Him mine in exchange for His and sat there and poured out my heart to Jesus. My best friend. More real to me than the bedrock beneath my feet. This Jesus, how wonderful. It was hard and ugly and I didn’t feel so ‘tough’ or together, but as I fell apart and allowed Jesus to place His finger on what I couldn’t, the fog lifted. And as the fog quite literally lifted around me that morning, as I let Jesus into where I was, the honest hard spot of where I was, the fog lifted in my heart and mind and I could finally see again. His love changes me. I could see truth for truth and lies for lies. I could see His kindness, the love story He’s been writing all along, I could see how He was restoring me to Himself and making me His own. I could finally see again. I’ve felt His hand so tangibly on my heart these past few weeks but up to this point, I couldn’t even tell you what it was or for what, but then I remembered what God’s told me and that He’s always faithful to His word… He said I’m giving you a new heart in exchange for the one you have, and He’s done just that. He’s given me a new heart, His own.
I don’t know about you, but I know I forget that while God knows us, everything about us, every hair on our head and every thought before we think them, He wants us to be known by Him. He wants what’s going on in our hearts and minds, He wants us to come to Him with our everything. He wants the honest condition of our hearts and what’s going on inside of them. Our hearts affect everything, what we allow in, how and what we see, and what comes out. My trying so hard to ‘be’ something myself only hurt me, but the second I let Him know me, really know me, where I was and what I was ‘hiding’ (if you will) was the second everything changed. He can’t heal what we don’t give Him and we can’t possess what we don’t come and get from Him.
I’ve lived with this lovesick stirring in my heart ever since for more. More of God. More of the life and love and freedom and joy and peace that come along with knowing Him. Honestly I don’t think we can ever get enough, we’ve only tasted and barely seen, you know? Thank you God for that! I don’t know what it is, I really can’t explain it but it’s that feeling that nothing else will do taken to a whole new level. Friends, that’s not my heart, that’s His. That’s a new spirit, that’s His spirit, crying out Abba Father. He gives us His own.
He wants to give you a new heart.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26-27
“You’re as real to me as bedrock beneath my feet, like a castle on a cliff, my forever firm fortress, my mountain of hiding, my pathway of escape, my tower of rescue where none can reach me. My secret strength and shield around me, you are salvation’s ray of brightness shining on the hillside, always the champion of my cause.” Psalm 18:2 (TPT)
Sarah Tucker is the owner of Imago Dei in Franklin and Nashville, TN, where the heart behind the shop is to point people back to Jesus and serve as a reminder to everyone who visits that they are made in the image of God. She loves drinking coffee, long country drives, and spending time with her friends and family! Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahatucker
**We at Live Original absolutely LOVE Imago Dei. Everything from the clothes to the heart behind the store is dear to our hearts. Check out their website HERE!
by Sarah Tucker | Jul 7, 2020 | Life Advice |
HEY SISTER!! Or brother, whoever is reading this, and Happy Tuesday! As I feel like I’ve been surrounded by summer rain and breathtaking rainbows that follow them these past few weeks, I couldn’t help but feel reminded of God’s promise to Noah, God’s promise to us. Never again will He flood the earth. I’ve been completely hung up on this — the obedience of one man changed everything for everyone to come. Sounds a lot like Jesus, huh? YES, but I’m going to talk about Noah here for a second.
It’s so crazy to me how the Bible stories we read growing up in church can become so engraved in our minds that we miss the WOW factor of what had actually happened. Noah had never seen rain before, God told him to build an ark (what’s an ark?), and he did. All it took was one man’s YES to God the Father…
I don’t know about you, but more often than I would like to admit, I find myself making up excuses and giving God reasons why I can’t do something. Sometimes not even that, just dismissing that still small voice of the Holy Spirit within me, marking it as a good thought instead of taking it as a command. Oh, God! That I would not be found like this!! That my heart’s natural inclination would be this — living in response to the Father. Not in response to the natural, to the facts, to our reasons, to anything other than Him. Not in response to the fact that nothing has ever fallen from the sky before, but to the every word that comes from His mouth. He moves, I move. He speaks, I listen. He says, I do.
I want to encourage you in this today — whatever God is asking you to do, whatever prompting you feel on your heart, whatever nudge you feel in your spirit, big or small, matters. Your yes to God matters. Your obedience to the Father matters. You matter and everything God asks of you is significant to Him. Could I dare to say that if it wasn’t, He wouldn’t ask? Because don’t we know, God wastes nothing. Just a thought.
Maybe you don’t have the exact directions laid out in front of you just yet. Maybe God’s told you to start building and you’ve never seen anything like what you’re preparing for, what’s rain to a man who’s never seen it? Maybe all you have is a gut feeling to do a thing that feels like maybe it could be God but at the same time, maybe you could be crazy? Haha! I’m sure that thought crossed Noah’s mind, but ohhh did his faith pave the way. For years, Noah faithfully got up and put his hands to God’s words.
Noah did everything God commanded him to do.
Maybe you’ve been obedient. Maybe you’re on the boat and 40 days have felt like 40 years and you’re wishing and waiting and wanting for the rains to stop, for your feet to finally touch the ground again. Maybe you feel like the waters keep rising and the dove you sent isn’t coming around back and maybe all you have is a ‘feeling’ that the flood is almost over but you’re still stuck in the obedience boat of waiting? Hey, God sees YOU. But I would also like to propose this. Maybe, just like on the ark, everything around you needed to die in order for new life to be found? Pride. Judgement. Selfishness. Jealousy. Lust. False gods. Idols. Greed. Anything that separates you from Him, needs to die. So that when you step out, when it’s finally time and God says to come out, that you come out with a heart even more like his. Tender, tended to, lovely. A trusting heart that knows ‘only God’ could have done something like this. Only God could be so kind.
Noah only came out after God spoke to him and told him to come out of the ark. His whole life, dependent on the word of God. And in that place, Noah built an altar to God. He sacrificed perhaps what Noah might once have held onto so dearly. His sacrifices, his heart, his open hands, his obedience, a sweet fragrance to the heart of the Father.
“And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on earth.” Genesis 9:12-16. NIV
God sent a rainbow to be a reminder of His faithfulness. His promise. His goodness and His kindness. Obedience and faith move the heart of God. To jump back up to all of my what if’s and maybe’s that I stated above, don’t we know that the rainbow always comes after the storm? He is faithful to complete what it is He’s started in you. For His glory, because it’s WHO He is. Faithful.
Noah obviously didn’t live to see the fulfillment of the covenant God made with him all the way through. He only lived to see the tiniest glimpse of it, but Noah was faithful to God for no other reason than because God said so. I’m sure when Noah spent years and years sweating, building, laboring in the heat of the sun, he wasn’t thinking that the livelihood of his family fell on him every day even though he knew it was going to change everything. What if you knew that your yes to God would change lives for generations to come? I believe it does. That our lives, our marriages or future marriages, our friendships, our kids, their kids, their friends, their teachers, our parents even? Friends, we’re living in the faithfulness of one man. Our faith, being built by the faith of Noah. The faith of others, building on ours.. Laying the grounds for generations to come. Changing everything.
Now, we have the holy spirit as our guide, living inside of us as believers, leading us into EVEN MORE than this. How much more access to the Father and how much MORE will the Holy Spirit lead us into as we make Him our focus. Our one thing? I want my life to be built on yeses to the Father.
The other night at church, our pastor had prompted us to sit on and reflect on these three questions. What incredible thing do you feel God calling you to do? Are you going to do it? And what does it look like?
I would love to leave you with these same three questions today. Now friends, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy or super spiritual. I think it’s such a trick to think that everything God asks us to do is going to be something as extravagant as building an ark without any rain, although yeah, he does that!! However, it can be simple and sometimes simple can be just as extravagant. He’s in our every moment, or rather, we’re in His. I asked God these same questions and got the sweetest response. I felt this. Love, everything I invite you into is an incredible thing. This life I give you, is the literal life of Jesus. Taking His hand and walking into all the fullness of what Jesus died so that I could have. And that, that is incredible. Inviting Him into every moment and intentionally hosting the presence of God. What does it look like? Are you going to do it?
What if your story is this — “(your name here) did everything God commanded him to do.” Wouldn’t that be a good story? What a legacy!!!
I did everything God commanded me to do.
If you have your Bible handy, see Genesis 6-9 for the full story. If you enjoy reading different versions, I also encourage you to read it in the Message Translation! I encourage you to not skim through the parts you think you may know, but lean in. Let the Holy Spirit lead you, guide your heart and minds, show you things only He can. Chew on this story. Papa, what are you asking me to do? You’re my one thing. Help me to host your presence like a dove on my shoulders. Give me a new heart. A willing heart. A heart that’s first and most natural response to you is a resounding, faithful, and obedient yes to You.
Sarah Tucker is the owner of Imago Dei in Franklin and Nashville, TN, where the heart behind the shop is to point people back to Jesus and serve as a reminder to everyone who visits that they are made in the image of God. She loves drinking coffee, long country drives, and spending time with her friends and family! Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahatucker
**We at Live Original absolutely LOVE Imago Dei. Everything from the clothes to the heart behind the store is dear to our hearts. Check out their website HERE!
by Sarah Tucker | Apr 14, 2020 | Life Advice |
When asked to write on the topic ‘unplug’ back in the beginning of March, I had no idea what the next month would look like. Did anyone? During this time of self distancing, I’ve found myself spending less and less time on my phone and more and more time doing things that truly give me life. Waking up and spending time with Jesus – time that I thought I didn’t have enough of before. I’ve walked more than I have all year combined, eaten more meals with my family around a table than I have in the past five years, played tennis, read books, gone fishing, and I think driven all the back roads of Williamson County with the top down and music up. I have set aside my phone, let it die, and I have lived. I’ve spent this time doing things that fill my heart, refresh my mind, restore my soul.
At the beginning of this month, I felt the Lord ask me, ‘What is it that needs to die in order for there to be new life? In order for you to live?’
And y’all, I’ve been chewing on this for weeks. I can’t shake it. I can’t move from it. What is it in my heart that needs to go to make room for more of Jesus? More life, more love, more joy, more freedom, more peace… less of me and more of Him? If there’s one thing I can take from this time and know for sure, it’s this…God doesn’t ask for anything from you without in turn giving you more of Himself. Jesus. It’s a beautiful dance, this giving and receiving. This loving and being loved. This whole distancing ourselves from distractions and making room for Jesus.
I don’t know about you but I needed to take a step back. I needed to let the ground rest. To reprioritize, to unplug, and plug back into the one true source of every good thing.
Here’s the thing – we’re always plugged into something, right? So what is it that you’re plugged into and what is it you need to be unplugged from? I honestly feel kind of silly using the words plugged and unplugged so much, but I think they’re fitting, don’t you? We always get something out of what we’re plugged into. I’m talking all sorts of things here, not just Instagram and social media. We GET something out of everything we do. Every thought we entertain, every show we watch, every song we listen to, every book we read, every conversation we have, every app we open. We get something out of relationships we’re in and friendships we have that we know we maybe shouldn’t? We get something out of the foods we eat, the drinks we drink, you name it. Whatever you’re plugged into, you’ll get something out of.
I’m walking out of this with Jesus. Refreshed. Restored. Better off than I was before. Plugged into Jesus. Not by accident, but by choice. Giving him what I’ve been carrying around, the distractions, the weights, the sin, the relationships, the anythings and everythings that don’t lead me to His heart. Taking hold of His outstretched hand, the life that He offers, and walking with Him. Wherever He leads me, whatever it looks like. I’m walking out of this with Jesus.
Sarah Tucker is the owner of Imago Dei in Franklin and Nashville, TN, where the heart behind the shop is to point people back to Jesus and serve as a reminder to everyone who visits that they are made in the image of God. She loves drinking coffee, long country drives, and spending time with her friends and family! Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahatucker
**We at Live Original absolutely LOVE Imago Dei. Everything from the clothes to the heart behind the store is dear to our hearts. Check out their website HERE!
by Sarah Tucker | Jan 6, 2020 | Life Advice |
Hello, 2020. It’s nice to see you.
I’ve gone back and forth so many times over the past week and a half on what to write about on this day, January 6th, 2020. There’s something so hopeful about the start of the new year – I love it. My sister, Gracie, touched on this in her blog a few weeks ago, but maybe this could be the year! The year that you did something crazy, the year you started going to the gym, making healthier choices. The year you get out of debt, buy a house, meet the man you hope to marry. Maybe this is the year you forgive, you let go, you get help. This could be the year, and heck, let it be the year. I hope it is. But oh friends, this could be the start.
Let it be the start.
The start of something new and great, groundbreaking, legendary.
Taking this past year, this past decade, everyday you’ve lived up to this point, and moving forward into the things that God has purposed and prepared for you. Last week I found myself sitting at the kitchen table in a full house with the smell of coffee in one room and the sound of sweet baby coo’s in the other, flipping open my Bible hungry for more. Not for more of the same, hungry for more of something different… something fresh. I opened my Bible right up to Isaiah 61. I normally don’t just flip my Bible open aimlessly, but love when I do and it speaks directly to the seat I’m sitting in. (**side note, if you’re an aimless Bible opener, there’s nothing aimless about reading the Word of God). I don’t know about the seat you’re sitting in or were before the New Year sprung in you a new hope, but for me, 2019 was ouf. A tough year. Don’t get me wrong, 2019 was a GOOD year but I feel as good as it was, it was equally as hard. I’ve read Isaiah 61 a hundred times but oh, this time the words jumped off the page and sunk into my heart. A year of the Lord’s favor. I have ‘my purpose’ written out to the side. Yes yes yes. I couldn’t move past it.
Your life for His glory, a display of His splendor. Everything that’s made you who you are, every experience that has shaped you, everything that’s broken your heart, your story, HIS story… a display of His splendor.
A year of the Lord’s favor, emphasized in my heart as the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on YOU, because He has anointed YOU to proclaim good news to the poor.
The good news that our God is a good God. That He is faithful to who He is, all things true, and oh so kind. The good news that God uses everything the enemy intended for evil for good and is for you and not against you. To the poor in spirit, poor in strength, poor in ____________. He has sent me (YOU) to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives (captives of fear, alcohol, drugs, food, comparison, judgement, you name it) and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To share your story, God’s story of grace in your life, His redeeming love. His restoration back to better than before, your story of God being near, loving you whole, bringing your heart back to His… To comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Dust and mourning and self inflicted _____________ (you name it, friends) for beauty. Beautiful restoration. For more of Himself.
They (YOU) will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. A life built by streams of water so that others may come and drink from the well of Jesus inside of you. So that others would come to know Jesus through the way you live and speak and love Him and love others. The overflow. They (YOU) will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Rebuild. Restore. Renew. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, and you will be named ministers of God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be YOURS. “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seed to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. For as surely as what you plant will sprout. Your faithfulness. HIS faithfulness.
You’ll find this again in Luke 4:18-19 when Jesus read from a scroll the words of the prophet Isaiah.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And then in v. 21 Jesus says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
In your hearing. For every person with ears to hear, the year of the Lord’s favor. Oh that our ears would be bent towards heaven to hear what the Father says, to do and say only what you hear Him tell you to do and say. What if we listened to Him and were surrendered to be led by Him – to proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind. To set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. That the voice of the Father would be the only voice you reason with this year, as it’s only His favor we are after.
God is with us. Emmanuel.
God is for us. He sent His son to prove it.
God (Holy Spirit) in us.
Favor. Favor. Favor.
This could be the year of favor that sets you up for every year to come to be the year of the Lord’s favor. As you intentionally set your hearts on His, have ears to hear, lean into His purpose for you (Isaiah 61), and set your eyes on Him to see that this is the year.
Let this be the start.
The year of the Lord’s Favor.
fa·vor
/ˈfāvər/
Noun
1. approval, support, or liking for someone or something.
Approval, goodwill, kindness, benevolence, friendliness.
2. an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.
Act of kindness, good deed, benefit
3. feel or show approval or preference for.
Advocate, back, champion, campaign for, stand up for, argue for, press for, promote, endorse, favorite, chosen, special.
May the favor of the Lord be upon you this year as you partner your heart with His, in the seeking of His kingdom first and bringing about a little bit of heaven on earth.
Isaiah 61.
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
“For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”
I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.
Sarah Tucker is the owner of Imago Dei in Franklin and Nashville, TN, where the heart behind the shop is to point people back to Jesus and serve as a reminder to everyone who visits that they are made in the image of God. She loves drinking coffee, long country drives, and spending time with her friends and family! Follow Sarah on Instagram @sarahatucker
**We at Live Original absolutely LOVE Imago Dei. Everything from the clothes to the heart behind the store is dear to our hearts. Check out their website HERE!
