Heaven must receive until the time comes for God to restore everything,

as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Acts 3:21

God is about restoration, not punishment.

The vision of Ezekiel in Chapter 47 is a clear picture of Gods restoration. The living water flows out of the temple and makes its way to the Dead Sea. This river must flow through the valleys surrounding Jerusalem and cleanse them along the way. This would include the Valley of Hinnom, also known as Gehenna. The living water would clean and restore this valley which has a gruesome history of murder and child sacrifice, ground up bones and garbage dumps.

Ezekiel describes new life and trees growing on the banks of this river. It even transforms the Dead Sea and brings life to it. The salt water is replaced by fresh water teeming with schools of fish. Trees will grow and bring life to the banks of the sea, and fruit will grow year round. The leaves will never whither and will be used for healing.

The passage describes the New Jerusalem when God will make all things new. All of human history seems to have been building toward this point, when the old will pass away and the new will come.

He is a God who creates. His purpose is to bring life so we can live it abundantly. Jesus says it is the thief that comes to destroy (John 10:10), yet I often try to attribute the destruction in my own life to God and then try to convince myself He is good.

I have to regularly remind myself that God is healing and restoring all things. He is reconciling the world to himself and inviting me to enter into that process. I am invited to reconcile with the people of my life whom I have wronged and to partner with God, who brings life to dead places.

To my warped mind, this reconciliation often feels like punishment, but it is meant to set all things right. I misunderstand His intentions and I snarl like a dog as you try to pull porcupine quills out of it. I do not understand that the quills, like sin, will cause infections and that the transitory pain of reconciliation is actually for my own healing. I mistakenly think the pain is payback for some past transgression.

Punishment is hollow— it inflicts pain and misery for the sake of retribution. That I mustn’t attribute to God.

Restoration, the act of being returned to your previous condition, is full of life. Restoration brings me back to what I was meant to be.

Punishment brings death.

God brings life.

Like a master craftsman refining silver to eliminate the impurities, or a launderer scrubbing to make clean, I am being made better; I am being restored, reconciled, made holy.