October 18

Revelation 21.1-5

¹ 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. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘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.”

⁵ 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.”

We began with our being placed in God’s hospitality, beginning with the garden and in life in his world today.  We moved further to see that God brought his hospitality to all and we are to extend hospitality to all.  Now we see that the hospitality of God to his creation means that all will be renewed and we will be invited into the fullness of his presence.  The restoration of our place in his perfected creation.

God is preparing a renewed creation.  A place we are being prepared for already.  Being made ready to be in God’s presence fully.  Being ready to live where all things have been renewed to what he intended in that beginning we saw in Genesis 1 and 2.  God is inviting us into his place of completeness.  He will bring us into his places, with the life and restoration our whole being is yearning for.

As we see God welcoming us already, and the promise of the full welcoming, we come to him in joy and in our worship.  We live our lives now so that we are ready, and so that all can see that they are invited.  Being called to go as the servants of the king in the parable to bring in the blind, the lame and the poor to God’s extravagant banquet of life.  We are being made ready.  So we worship and we follow in all of life to the glory of God now.  And we will enter into his full glory where all is renewed and made ready for his glorious kingdom.

Song – Revelation Song

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, you have willed to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, our Lord and King.  Grant that the people of earth, now divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under the gentle and loving rule of Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.