I Am Making Everything New!

I AM MAKING EVERYTHING NEW!

Begin by taking a few breaths and paying attention to the air moving in and out of your lungs and mouth. Notice where you feel tension or discomfort in your body. To the extent you are able, try to relax, let the chair you are sitting in fully support your body, and release the tension as you breathe deeply.

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord, in my tired, aging, hurting, wondrous body.

Open my heart to you now. You are my High Priest who knows.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”

The most poignant reality about being embodied is the suffering and pain our bodies must endure, whether in the bumps and bruises of growing up or in our vulnerability to external dangers, sickness and disease, aging, and death. God’s promise is to relieve those sufferings. He is making all things new, including our bodies, and there is a day coming when there will be no more pain or suffering or death.

• Imagine getting to live in your body without ever feeling pain because you are no longer at risk for being hurt. What do you imagine that being like?
• Reflect on God’s promise that your body will be healed and whole. What would it look like to live in that truth? How might your courage be affected?
• Reflect on the reality that in and through Jesus, the embodied one, God is making all things new and will remove all possibility of pain and suffering and death. What does this truth reveal to you about God’s love? What does it reveal about Jesus’ ability to identify with you?

Jesus Christ—

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace;

the one through whom and for whom all things were made; and

the one in whom I live and move and have my being—

you became flesh and made your dwelling among us.

And nothing—neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future; not any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—can separate me from the love of our God, which is in you, Jesus Christ my Lord.