All Things New

Continuing our series Anchored By Hope, today we consider the hope in God’s promise of restoration as He makes all things new. 

Upon returning from our honeymoon, we unpacked our wedding gifts and began to fill our home. I opened some nice knives and filled the knife block. Once I began cooking with those brand-new kitchen knives, it was amazing! They chopped so easily, cut so smoothly. When I used my mother’s well-worn knives again, the difference was marked. My new, sharp knives were one of my favorite parts of my kitchen.

It’s been nearly fifteen years now — fifteen good, and also humbling, years. If a newlywed with her own brand-new knives visited my kitchen, she might be dismayed at the state of my once-sharp knives. I try to sharpen them occasionally, but I have largely given up on adequately sharpening them myself. I had just found a place to take them when the pandemic hit. Soon, I keep telling myself, I will take my knives to the knife-sharpening guy, and they will be returned to me renewed, restored, working just as they were intended to!

New things are nice. They work just as they were made to, and they are full of potential. The Bible is also full of joy over newness — newness with far more significance than kitchen convenience.

In Mercy, the Lord Makes a New Way

We see in the Old Testament that the Lord brings refreshment when the way is weary and surrounded by wilderness and desert. He brings a change, needed provisions, and rest — renewed hope.

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:16-19)

In Christ, We are Made New

Oh, what hope! Not only does the Lord inject His mercy into our circumstances and our path, but His grace is completely transformative.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)

In salvation, we ourselves are re-created anew and indwelt with His Spirit.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

In His Presence, All Things Will be Made New

God’s renewal and restoration far exceeds our path and our selves. In the penultimate chapter of the Bible, John describes Heaven:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelations 21:3)

This beautiful description is the ultimate restoration, our unending peace in the eternal presence of God. Read that phrase again: “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” This is the deepest peace, and it seems that union drives the healing and restoration that follow.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelations 21:4-5)

Death defeated, life eternal, and all things new. The Creator of all we see and all we that don’t is redeeming it all.

Hope to Worship as We Were Made To

When I read these passages together, I am filled with hope. I see that the Lord is active in my life and my day, bringing new mercies each morning (Lamentations 3:21-24). He is restoring me, restoring His Church, restoring broken relationships, broken people, and broken lands.

When I finally get my kitchen knives sharpened, it’ll be glorious. They will cut easily and chop smoothly and work just as they were made to. Life in the kitchen will be just a bit better. Imagine what it means when we are restored, when we are just as we were made to be. In the heaviness that may surround us today, do not lose heart. “Our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).  Renewed and restored, we, too, work just as we were created to. We worship, we love, and we forgive.

We are being made new. All things are being made new. Thank you, God, for that Hope.