In Revelation 22, John describes the City of God overflowing with justice, beauty, and goodness. The Genesis 3 curse of toil, pain, sweat, sin and death is lifted. It will be a world of perfect peace, of infinite beauty and wonder that causes us to fall to our knees in worship. At the city center, we’ll find God in all his glory as healing flows from the River of Life, nourishing
the Tree of Lie that is now fully accessible to all inhabitants of the Garden City. This city will be the staging area for re-Creation. And we, the inhabitants, will be God’s instruments of justice, beauty and goodness. We will join God in his mission of re-creation as we reign with God forever.
Our task, then, is to uncover the realities for which we are created so we can live those realities today.
We must join God in the ultimate restoration of God’s people and creation. We must join God in beautification, bringing loveliness out of ashes and reflecting his beauty to a world in decay. And we must cooperate with God to perform acts of goodness in God’s name to remind humanity their Creator loves them and has not forgotten their suffering.
These three components of our vocation remind us we don’t have to wait for Jesus to make heaven and earth to start re-creating.
We can start now.
Adapted from The Story Lectionionary