FAVORITE CHRISTMAS QUOTES 2012, # 10:

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. . . .

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I AM OF IRELAUNDE, by Juilene Osborne-McKnight, chapter 28 (a historical novel about St Patrick);

Ephesians 1:9-10, J.B. Phillips translation; and

Romans 8:19-20a, 21, also in the Phillips translation.