"Found Poem": A Spirituality of Restoration

The best of Christian spirituality and - gasp! - theology, rather than conjuring up dark visions of a wrathful God who can only be appeased by the blood sacrifice of a human being (in a particularly horrific manner), points us toward the truth that the Creator yearns to see the entire cosmos restored to the perfection of God's original design.

Here are three originally separate texts which all witness to the same concept:

I believe in a God
who restores all things. . . .
      
All that has been lost to us       
will be restored. 
This is the gift of the Christ.     
Though life be lost     
and love       
and all that we hold dear,
it will be given back to us again
in him.

For God has allowed us

to know the secret of his plan,
and it is this:
that all human history
shall be consummated in Christ,
so that everything that exists

in Heaven or on earth

shall find its perfection

or fulfillment

in him.

The whole creation is on tiptoe

to see the wonderful sight

of the children of God

coming into their own. 

The world of creation

cannot yet see reality,

yet it has been given hope. 

And the hope is this:

that in the end

the whole of created life will be rescued. . . .