Wednesday, March 01, 2006

The Great Restoration
This is the title of my favourite chapter in John Eldredge's book. I learnt all kinds of stuff. Things I thought I knew about but really didn't. It energized me. Inspired me. Gave me a picture....something concrete to look forward to.
Sharing some insights:
The kingdom of God brings restoration. Life is restored to what it was meant to be.

What happens to Jesus after he dies? He is resurrected, of course. As someone or something else? No, as himself, only healed and very much alive. Then what - float around? No, he has breakfast.

Do you see that eternal life does not become something totally "other", but rather that life goes on - only as it should be.

Dallas Willard wrote, The life we now have as persons we now are will continue in the universe in which we now exist.

The earth has been our home and will be our home in eternity. This is a great consolation. When we place eternity "out there somewhere", in a place we cannot conceive of, we are left longing for home. To lose the only world we have ever known - a world so full of memories, so rich and beautiful, with so much left to explore - is to lose something deep and priceless to our hearts.

The only things destroyed are the things outside God's realm - sin, disease and death. But we who are God's children, the heavens and the earth he has made, will go on.

What will we do in eternity? If all we've got are halos and harps, our options are pretty limited. But to have the whole cosmos before us - wow.

This brings to mind what Dr Tan Kim Huat said in honest hilarity. If all we are going to do in heaven is worship God endlessly, He would simply have made us as one big mouth.
There is one sentence Eldrege repeats a few times throughout this chapter. I'm mulling over it and plan to give it more thought.

We can only hope for what we desire.

1 comment:

auntymich said...

good to know we'll hv breakfast eternally :)