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Hope for a Restored Creation

EasterEnvironment, Biodiversity and Flood Resilience Week 19 · Day 7

Scripture References

Read First

Old Testament

Isaiah 65:17-25

¹⁷ “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight, and her people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more.

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²⁰ “No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.
²¹ They will build houses and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² They will not build and another inhabit. They will not plant and another eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³ They will not labour in vain nor give birth for calamity; for they are the offspring of the LORD’s blessed and their descendants with them.
²⁴ It will happen that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.

New Testament

Revelation 21:1-5

¹ I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
² I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
³ I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

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⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”
⁵ He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”

Thought for the Day

Isaiah dares to imagine what we cannot engineer: new heavens and a new earth. Not merely a cleaned-up version of the old, but a remade world where sorrow does not have the final word. The prophet speaks of long life, secure homes, fruitful work, and peace that reaches even the animal kingdom.

Revelation echoes and intensifies the hope. A new heaven and earth; the sea no more. It is not a promise of dryness, but of the end of chaos and threat. God dwells with his people, wipes tears, makes all things new.

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This hope is not permission to neglect the present. It is a refusal to let the present define the future. Christians can labour for repair without pretending we can save the world by our own strength.

Lord, keep our hearts from cynicism. Give us hope that is muscular, not sentimental: hope that prays, that acts, that tells the truth, that refuses despair. Comfort those who have lost homes, harvests, and health to environmental harm. And teach your Church to live as a people of the coming kingdom: heirs of renewal, and faithful subjects in the meantime, seeking the good of the place where you have set us.

Prayer Points

Respond

Give thanks for the promise of new creation, and ask for hope that strengthens rather than escapes.
Pray for those mourning losses from environmental harm: comfort, justice, and a path to rebuild.
Ask God to sustain long-term repair work: patience, funding, skill, and honest leadership.

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Pray that public life would resist despair and denial alike, holding truth and action together.
Pray for the Church to witness to Christ’s coming renewal with humility, steadiness, and love.

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