Christmas break this year was two weeks long.
I was very grateful for the break. Seth and I did a lot of traveling and stayed busy pretty much up until the end. We flew to Florida to visit my brother with my family, and then we went to Ohio to visit his family. We even had a couple of days at the end to spend time with our friends back in town before work started up again on Monday, January 6.
Break was a blast, but I was so ready to be back at school.
I wasn’t ready to be back because school is easy, or because I didn’t have enough to do at home. I was ready to be back because I missed those sweet kindergarteners. I missed laughing together and singing together and praying together and rejoicing over blending sounds and learning numbers.
And I was so happy to see them Monday morning. Even though many of them came in very sleepy.
They were happy to be back in school, too.
We could feel it all day, that joy of reunion. The comfort of settling back into familiar routines. The dynamics of friendships and the delight of a shared history. The return to normal. The ways things are supposed to be.
It got me thinking… How much happier will we be when one day, we are united with our Savior and Creator in the New Heaven and New Earth?
The joy of reunion with all those we have loved and lost. The comfort of resting in the presence of the One who loves us most. The dynamics of perfect relationships and the delight of a perfect home. The return to restoration. The way things are supposed to be.
Revelation 21:1-4 describes this joyous moment that will come to us one day: “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. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 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. ‘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.’”
I love the image of a God who loves us so much He can’t just sit back and wait for us to join Him in this moment of restoration. He delights over us now. He reaches into this world. He walks through life with us now, in preparation for the rest of eternity. Isn’t that beautiful?
So never forget, my friend… you are onederfully created by the God of insurmountable, unexplainable love.
Love,
Becca
