Although my area missed the big snow and ice storm which hit the country over the last couple of days, it’s still winter around here. Last night I had to salt one of the entrances to our church. Thank God for spreaders:)
Over the last several weeks, my prayer life has been focused on God’s ability to restore broken things. Sometimes in our busy-ness, we lose sight of just how broken the world really is. Let me tell you, there are a lot of broken people out there. When you get right to it, in reality we’re all broken in one way or the other. It’s been that way from the beginning.
This morning, I read the quote below from John Eldridge’s book, Epic. When I read the passage, it reminded me of the importance of telling people about the restoration God desires for each of us.
Look at the life of Jesus. Notice what he did. When Jesus touched the blind, they couldsee; all the beauty of the world opened before them. When he touched the deaf, they were able to hear; for the first time in their lives they heard laughter and music and their children’s voices. He touched the lame, and they jumped to their feet and began to dance. And he called the dead back to life and gave them to their families.
Do you see? Wherever humanity was broken, Jesus restored it. He is giving us an illustration here, and there, and there again. The coming of the kingdom of God restores the world he made.
God has been whispering this secret to us through creation itself, every year, at springtime, ever since we left the Garden. Sure, winter has its certain set of joys. The wonder of snowfall at midnight, the rush of a sled down a hill, the magic of the holidays. But if winter ever came for good and never left, we would be desolate. Every tree leafless, every flower gone, the grasses on the hillsides dry and brittle. The world forever cold, silent, bleak.
After months and months of winter, I long for the return of summer. Sunshine, warmth, color, and the long days of adventure together. The garden blossoms in all its beauty. The meadows soft and green. Vacation. Holiday. Isn’t this what we most deeply long for? To leave the winter of the world behind, what Shakespeare called “the winter of our discontent,” and find ourselves suddenly in the open meadows of summer?
If we listen, we will discover something of tremendous joy and wonder. The restoration of the world played out before us each spring and summer is precisely what God is promising us about our lives. Every miracle Jesus ever did was pointing to this Restoration, the day he makes all things new.
How could you not love a passage that ends with the reminder that God is making all things new? Sometime in the next few days, set your alarm clock (if you need to) and watch the sun come up. It’s a powerful reminder that everything is in God’s hands, and the new day gives you another chance to make things right with your world. What needs to be restored in your life?
