Imagine New

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
- from Revelation 21:4
 
God’s cosmic new-making mission will radically change the way the world works.
 
Right now, death seems necessary. The Malthusian philosophers warn of overpopulation. The Evolutionary theorists point to the need for natural selection. Many talk of the necessity of war, capital punishment, and police armed with the capability to kill at the press of a finger. Death seems necessary. But it won’t always be that way.
 
We can scarcely imagine a world without death. What would you eat? What would you wear? With what materials would be used to manufacture your furniture and home? We’ve never lived anywhere near to a world without death.
 
To use the words of Revelation, we live in the center of “the old order of things.” Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that we live on the edge of the old order. That old order is collapsing every day under the weight of God’s mercy and grace poured out through Jesus Christ.
 
God is reordering the cosmos into a place where death and mourning and crying and pain have no place. All those will pass away. Faith, hope, and love will remain but those other broken features will go away.
 
Take a moment to engage your holy imagination today. What would it be like to live in a world without death, mourning, crying, and pain? How would your relationships change? What acts of love, mercy, and reconciliation might you be willing to attempt?

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