devotional 

God’s Vision for Restoration

I’ve been thinking about God’s heart lately. Specifically, His heart towards us, His people.

There are those who only think of God as someone who is really angry at us, just waiting for us to muck up somehow. But how does that image stack up with what is written in the bible?

A friend reminded me recently that God has always been for us, it is sin that He is against.

The Bible describes the perfect beginning. God created people and made a beautiful garden home for them to live in and care for. The relationship between God and people was close, full of love and purpose. Then sin came and the relationship was ruined. I can’t imagine how heartbroken God would have been… and how heavily this would have weighed on him.

As we draw close to Easter, we are shown His heart towards people and the great lengths He took to restore the broken relationship.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

At great cost God allowed his dearly loved Son, Jesus, to take on Himself our sin and the punishment that went with it. In so doing, our relationship with Him was restored. His heartfelt intention toward people is spelled out in the following verse (17).

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

These actions remind me of a loving parent, who has always wanted the best for his/her child. One who absorbs the pain and consequence of their child’s mistakes and does everything they can to restore their child’s future and hope.

Why? It’s written in the first words of verse 16… For God so loved the world… That’s you and me…We are loved!

You could say that we are God’s Vision for Restoration.

Georgie Schuster