Considering Eternity

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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.” 

• Revelation 21: 1-4, ESV

Redemption - The idea that what has become broken will be healed. 

Pause. Look around. What do you see or feel that doesn’t seem right? Maybe it’s a hurting child with absent parents, skies that have been dulled by polluted air, or an endless stream of anxious thoughts in your own mind.

The sense that not all is well pervades me, as I know it pervades many others. It makes sense that so many of us don’t believe in our hearts – even if we say so with our mouths – that there is a loving God who wants to redeem. How could there be when we see so much that isn’t right? 

Eternity Prints (Picture by Bella Harris Photography)

When I read Revelation, the picture I see in my mind is of a God who says “Wait.” Wait for him to bring healing, color, justice, joy, and beauty. These words are easy to read through, but harder to believe. Read them slowly. What it truly mean for God to promise to “wipe every tear” and for “death to be no more”? 

Here’s the thing - if you say that scripture is true, you need to know that he does promise these things. And in making these promises, we get a glimpse of who he actually is. Something in our world is sick, and God is grieved by that. 

These paintings were birthed out of a wonder of what this redeemed world would look like – of what it would like for “the former things [to] have passed away.” For color to be everywhere, for nothing to be marred by sadness or selfishness.

My prayer is that they’ll inspire you to consider for yourself what God may want to redeem and wonder at what this tells you about Him. Even if you don’t believe any of what I wrote, allow yourself to ask the question - what do I see that’s broken and what would it look like for that to be redeemed? In the wondering, let hope well up within you consider how it feels to let it reside within you. Feel the tension, let yourself be curious, and let it shift and shape you.