Several days ago we got the sad news that a pilot with the mission organization that we had served with experienced a fatal crash.  She lived where we lived and served the people groups that we served.  She was only 40 years old when her plane crashed into the deep lake at the end of the runway.  Is this the end of her story?  No, she is more alive now than when she was here on earth.  She is enjoying her reward with her Savior.
Last week I was scrolling through my fb feed when a photograph grabbed my attention.  I stopped and stared at that photo.  I recognized the smile and the eyes immediately.  It was a portrait of a young woman apparently taken many years ago.   Although I never knew her when she was twenty something, I recognized this woman as my Sunday school teacher when I was in junior high.  At that time, she was middle-aged.  She died a few years ago at a ripe old age still smiling.  It popped into my head that this must be how she now looks in Heaven- young and vibrant.  How happy it made me to think that she is no longer in a wheelchair in a care facility, but now she is enjoying a perfect place and will have a perfect body for eternity. I thought to myself that I will recognize her right away when I join her in Heaven.  This got me to thinking how God will restore beauty to his creation that was marred by all of us choosing our way instead of God’s way.  He values beauty, yet our rejection of his instructions has caused ugly brokenness.  We turned away from God and made a mess of what was once perfect.  We age, we experience pain physically and emotionally, and so we groan.  We yearn for the perfection and beauty of his restored creation to come.   

Two days ago we got a text from a family member that an elderly family member had fallen and had not been able to get up.  Fortunately, the spouse realized the other wasn’t in the house and looked outside where he was lying on the ground in the freshly tilled garden.   A son was summoned and the rescue was completed quickly.  No broken bones, just a sad realization that old age had taken its toll on his agility.  But beyond his life in a limited body, there awaits restoration of strength and perfection.

My mother’s birthday was last week, but she died 52 years ago.  She didn’t get to finish raising me or attend my wedding or see her grandchildren.  But she got to enter glory and be released from her diseased body.  I have never begrudged her escape to a better place.

God loves beauty and he intends to restore the beauty and happiness of Eden and make it even better because there won’t be any force of evil to tempt us. I want to share some verses that give us hope that all beauty and strength will be restored and elevated.  We have so much to look forward to! 

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. Isaiah 33:17

Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, the LORD, proclaiming victory, mighty to save.”  Isaiah 63:1

But in that day, the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of all who survive in Israel.  Isaiah 4:2

Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel. . . There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor of our God.  Isaiah 35:2

.. to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.  Isaiah 61:3

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  1 Chronicles 29:11

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.  Job 19:25

you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.  Psalm 16:11

Honor and majesty surround him; strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.  Psalm 96:6

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!  Psalm 84:1

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.  (Describing the New Jerusalem). Rev 21:11

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”  1 Corinthians 15:53-55

he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces.  Isaiah 25:8

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?  Hosea 13:14

Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.  2 Timothy 1:10

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16