I like the ring of this phrase- “made marvelous.” Maybe because “marvelous” is not a customary part of my vocabulary, or maybe because marvelous is just a good sounding word, I like it.

This morning I read these two words and became curious. What about you?  I want to know, what was “made marvelous?”  It invites me in- to partake and wonder.

Let’s talk about the word “marvelous.” How do you describe a word like this? With some pretty marvelous words we can define marvelous– like, astounding, exquisite, amazing, beautiful and stunning. It doesn’t get much better than that! Marvelous words.

I am sitting on my back porch now and enjoying an array of colorful flowers- deep purple, warm yellow, rose red, garden green and sun-filled orange. The color, the subtle scent and the coolish breeze blended together are marvelous.

Before Marvelous

If something or someone is “made marvelous” there is a time when it was not marvelous- a time when everything was different.

I would have used a different word to describe this garden six months ago. It was barren and dead, without blooms, in the middle of winter. It was not astounding, exquisite, amazing or stunning. It lacked visible life. It was in a slumber waiting for the light of longer days. With longer days, the warmth of the sun, and a little care this little spot was made marvelous.

In Dark Places

In the book of Psalm 31 it says,

Blessed be the Lord for He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.

I have never been in a besieged city, but it does not seem like a place of marvelous things. Instead it sounds scary, hopeless and painful. Yet, in this place, God made marvelous His lovingkindness.

In a place that was uncertain, full of despair, and dark, God shed His light. He was there. He showed up, not with just a smidgeon of lovingkindness- but in this place He made marvelous His lovingkindness. And then David says, “to me.” David personally experienced this, and experienced this in a besieged city.

To Me

There was a time David did not know God’s lovingkindness. There was a place, in a besieged city, where God’s lovingkindness may have seemed distant, so far away. Yet, in the suffering, pain and darkness God made marvelous His lovingingkindness to David.

Today I ask: God would your lovingkindness be made marvelous– be made wonderful, stunning and outstanding and beautiful in this day? To me?

His Light Makes the Marvelous

The apostle John says in John 1,

In Him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it.

Let’s believe together that in our dark places, hopeless places, God’s light can shine. In our “besieged cities” His lovingkindness can be made marvelous to me– in each page, in each chapter, in the stories of our lives, right now, today.