Looking to the future, not everyone anticipates a happy ending to our shared story. Surprisingly, even among people of faith, there is a tendency towards gloom and doom as we envision where everything is heading. Within this apocalyptic framework, the world is viewed as on its way to hell, and salvation is perceived as an evacuation plan—an escape from creation to an ethereal heaven somewhere out there—somewhere far, far away from here.  

And yet if we look and listen carefully to the vision of tomorrow painted by the Bible, we discover a much more encouraging and hopeful narrative. Less of an ending and more of a new beginning. A promise and a picture not of catastrophic global death and destruction but one of cosmic-wide restoration and renewal.

Certainly, there can be no denying that creation has gone dramatically astray from our Creator’s original design of harmony, unity, and wholeness. Inequity and injustice run rampant. Waste, fraud, and greed continue to be excused or worse, rationalized.

Before all these painful realities God does not turn a blind or indifferent eye. A reckoning is indeed foretold. But the overarching theme of such a divine accounting is not a punitive downpour of fire and rain on all the earth. It is one of universal redemption distinctly framed through the willingness to lay down one’s life for another—to serve rather than to be served. Thanks to the Resurrection that defies death, it is the recovery of all that has been lost and forsaken by a love that proves stronger than the power of evil.

What has been scattered is gathered back together. What was broken is healed and rebuilt. All that is wrong is reconciled and put right. It is the assurance of the restoration of a creation that has been groaning for its rescue ever since our innocence was first lost. As Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, he is not calling us to petition for an escape from this world as it is but rather to lean into God’s long-standing covenant to remake this world as it was intended to be.  

And yet this divine pledge of restoration encompasses much more than the mere resumption of a former state—returning what has become twisted, tired, and broken back to its former glory. The better world God is creating isn’t simply a recycled cosmos; it is “a new heavens and a new earth” (Revelation 21:21). It is not our former life coming back from death but a new life that goes beyond death and becomes everlasting. Restoration’s trajectory carries us forward into renewal—the progressive birth of a new state of being. This work of renewal is about maturation—going beyond the original, unblemished potential infused into all creation and bringing that potential, at last, to fruition and fullness.

Once our perspective shifts from “Things are only going to get worse” to “The best is yet to come,” fear and insecurity become eclipsed by hope and faith. While we recognize that in this life we do and will have trouble, we no longer confront obstacles and difficulties from a place of resignation and futility. Instead, believing and trusting that each challenge and every setback is only temporary and will never be the last word in our journey, we persevere. We persist in running the race, in fighting the good fight and choosing to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable” (Philippians 4:8).

The restoration and renewal into which Jesus invites us are something we are to demonstrate, not just proclaim. For we only flourish as God intends when others are enabled and empowered to flourish too. We cannot speak of hope unless we are willing to offer hope to others. To tear down barriers to communication instead of building them. To open doors of hospitality instead of closing them. To generously extend compassion and forgiveness rather than hoard the mercy and grace we have been given by Jesus.

In a world where so much has been lost, forsaken, forgotten, and shattered, we look to a Creator who seeks not to add to our pain and suffering by letting everything fall apart or worse, be consigned to vengeance and wrath. Restoration and renewal are the climaxes towards which our shared story is moving—even now. It is a movement not far, far away from this world in some otherworldly realm. It is a movement taking place in the world we live in—redeeming, reshaping, and ultimately transforming everything—making all things—including us, new.

Looking to the future, not everyone anticipates a happy ending to our shared story. Surprisingly, even among people of faith, there is a tendency towards gloom and doom as we envision where everything is heading. Within this apocalyptic framework, the world is viewed as on its way to hell, and salvation is perceived as an evacuation plan—an escape from creation to an ethereal heaven somewhere out there—somewhere far, far away from here.  

And yet if we look and listen carefully to the vision of tomorrow painted by the Bible, we discover a much more encouraging and hopeful narrative. Less of an ending and more of a new beginning. A promise and a picture not of catastrophic global death and destruction but one of cosmic-wide restoration and renewal.

Certainly, there can be no denying that creation has gone dramatically astray from our Creator’s original design of harmony, unity, and wholeness. Inequity and injustice run rampant. Waste, fraud, and greed continue to be excused or worse, rationalized.

Before all these painful realities God does not turn a blind or indifferent eye. A reckoning is indeed foretold. But the overarching theme of such a divine accounting is not a punitive downpour of fire and rain on all the earth. It is one of universal redemption distinctly framed through the willingness to lay down one’s life for another—to serve rather than to be served. Thanks to the Resurrection that defies death, it is the recovery of all that has been lost and forsaken by a love that proves stronger than the power of evil.

What has been scattered is gathered back together. What was broken is healed and rebuilt. All that is wrong is reconciled and put right. It is the assurance of the restoration of a creation that has been groaning for its rescue ever since our innocence was first lost. As Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, he is not calling us to petition for an escape from this world as it is but rather to lean into God’s long-standing covenant to remake this world as it was intended to be.  

And yet this divine pledge of restoration encompasses much more than the mere resumption of a former state—returning what has become twisted, tired, and broken back to its former glory. The better world God is creating isn’t simply a recycled cosmos; it is “a new heavens and a new earth” (Revelation 21:21). It is not our former life coming back from death but a new life that goes beyond death and becomes everlasting. Restoration’s trajectory carries us forward into renewal—the progressive birth of a new state of being. This work of renewal is about maturation—going beyond the original, unblemished potential infused into all creation and bringing that potential, at last, to fruition and fullness.

Once our perspective shifts from “Things are only going to get worse” to “The best is yet to come,” fear and insecurity become eclipsed by hope and faith. While we recognize that in this life we do and will have trouble, we no longer confront obstacles and difficulties from a place of resignation and futility. Instead, believing and trusting that each challenge and every setback is only temporary and will never be the last word in our journey, we persevere. We persist in running the race, in fighting the good fight and choosing to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable” (Philippians 4:8).

The restoration and renewal into which Jesus invites us are something we are to demonstrate, not just proclaim. For we only flourish as God intends when others are enabled and empowered to flourish too. We cannot speak of hope unless we are willing to offer hope to others. To tear down barriers to communication instead of building them. To open doors of hospitality instead of closing them. To generously extend compassion and forgiveness rather than hoard the mercy and grace we have been given by Jesus.

In a world where so much has been lost, forsaken, forgotten, and shattered, we look to a Creator who seeks not to add to our pain and suffering by letting everything fall apart or worse, be consigned to vengeance and wrath. Restoration and renewal are the climaxes towards which our shared story is moving—even now. It is a movement not far, far away from this world in some otherworldly realm. It is a movement taking place in the world we live in—redeeming, reshaping, and ultimately transforming everything—making all things—including us, new.