Restoration

Liam has me thinking eschatologically. I must confess that even as a believer thinking about the end has never been something I liked to do. I am not sure why, maybe because it seems far away and honestly scary. But because I belong to Christ I have no reason to fear. And in fact, my life is being characterized by faith and hope and the end is the realization of the hope we have in Christ.

None of us is whole. God wanted us to be whole but instead we fell. God's desire for all humanity is that we be in relationship with Him. That relationship is made available to us through Jesus Christ. The end is all about being restored to that relationship. Never has the fact that we are not whole been more obvious to me than now.

We may look whole. Some people do not. Some cannot walk or are missing limbs and you can see by their appearance they are not whole. Liam may or may not have a look that shows he is not whole. But none of us is whole. Our wholeness is not physical only, it is so much more.

The geneticist gave us a picture of Liam's actual chromosomes. Insane to see what makes up who we are. We can look at the picture and see what isn't whole. Sure enough that last pair of chromosomes, instead of being a pair, has 5. So I can see that Liam is not whole and what we know about his syndrome tells us that as he grows we will see in his development that he is not whole.

But I've been thinking, what if he's more whole than the rest of us? I wonder if Liam's deficiencies will mean he is always innocent? And I wonder if that is true is he more whole than the rest of us? If he always has a child like faith I think that he must be closer to being in that relationship than the rest of us.

So I am more aware than ever that I am not whole but more excited than ever to be restored. I long for that restoration. In Revelation 21 we read that God will make all things new. A new heaven, a new earth, and Christ-followers restored into the relationship with God that He has always wanted us to have. I believe that individuals will be personally restored. We will be whole.

My sweet baby boy, an innocent soul tainted by the fall, will one day be whole. That is the hope I have through this for him. And I have hope as I eagerly anticipate my own restoration and being made whole. I don't know if we will recognize people in heaven or if those special family and friend relationships we have on earth will be made whole in heaven. It will not matter once we are there, eternally restored to our Creator. But while on this earth, the part of me that cannot fathom eternity, hopes that when I make it there I will see and know Liam in his whole and restored existence.