Making all things new

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"  Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."  Revelation 21:5

When Peggy and I decided to turn the half-story upstairs of our first house into living space, her father came for a week to help us.  OK, the truth of the matter is, having built his own house largely on his own, he was pretty much the authority ... and a very good teacher.  I was the help.

We toiled the first few days, installing electrical wiring, extending the plumbing from the downstairs, and putting up furring strips where needed for drywall.  Yet even after a considerable amount of work, it looked as though we were hardly progressing at all toward the transformation I had envisioned.  Then on the fourth or fifth day, everything seemed to "pop" at once.  Floors tiled and bathroom accessories installed.  Drywall hung and doors, too.  We had, indeed, been steadily advancing all along, even though almost imperceptibly at times.

Ever since mankind welcomed sin into the world, God has been progressing toward "making everything new."  Centuries of Messianic prophecies have been fulfilled in Immanuel, God with us, full of grace and truth.  An old covenant of righteousness through sacrifice has been satisfied and set aside, replaced by a new covenant in his blood. Jews and Gentiles have been made one people in the Christ of God.  The Spirit of him we sought externally, we now experience internally.  And through it all, step by step, "our God" has been drawing ever nearer to "his people."

Certainly God's progress is more evident to us than to those who toiled in millennia past. They labored as we do, yet longed for a glimpse of what we see clearly - God in flesh, the perfect sacrifice, risen to life, once for all who believe.  Still, for all the clarity revealed to us, our view of what is yet to come remains dim.  No eye has seen it; no ear has heard it.

Yet God is preparing it.  And it will be breathtaking, far beyond imagination.  The Apostle John has caught a glimpse and shares it with us ...

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  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."  Revelation 21:1-4

We know it will come to pass.  For God has been completing his plan all along.  He is not about to stop now.  It will come to pass.  In this, we can take comfort.

Knowing God to be faithful to his promises for tomorrow, what pains and fears can we relinquish today?  

Who are we freed to serve today, knowing our loving God owns an eternity of our tomorrows?