Alive - by Dave Smith

prospect of our long-lost peace and wellbeing being restored.
However, just as it took another eleven months of bloody fighting to
liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny and for the ‘VE-Day’ celebrations
to take place (8 May 1945), so we’re still in the in-between times,
waiting for Jesus’ Second Coming and the manifestation of his
complete victory and our complete peace and wellbeing. In the
meantime, we often have to ‘fight’ for peace, both in our own lives,
our relationships and in the wider world – contending for justice and
shalom, in Jesus’ name.
But when Jesus returns, what celebrations will we enjoy! Just as the
first two chapters of the Bible began with a picture of the original
shalom in the Garden of Eden, so the last two chapters of the Bible
conclude with a beautiful picture of how the Lord will come to live with
his people, and of how the ‘new’ heavens and the ‘new’ earth will be
filled with a sense of perfect peace and wellbeing. On that day: ‘He’ll
wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good – tears gone,
crying gone, pain gone…[God will say], “Look! I’m making everything
new”’ (Revelation 21:4–5, The Message).
I don’t know how God will bring this all about, but I find this
description so encouraging! When I look at all the suffering, injustice
and pain in this current world, I like to imagine what the perfect new
world will be like – where tears, pain, poverty, suffering, sickness,
isolation and death will be no more, and where we will finally
experience perfect peace and wellbeing, forever! It inspires me to
press forward for an increase of peace in my own life and in the lives
of those around me today.