Every good story goes to crap before the glorious climax.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelations 21:5)

It’s difficult to imagine how the Creator of everything intends to make it all new. Humanity seems to be doing a pretty good job of making a mess of it all.

All living things die around us. Eventually, we too, will die. Even our earth—its’ ice, oceans, trees, and soil—are in dire straights. We are in desperate need of the “everything new” trick.

But, perhaps that’s the problem. Maybe we think it’s a divine trick up God’s sleeve. Or, we’re waiting for this place to get so bad that God takes us to a different place. All the while, I wonder if God is waiting on us to keep up our end of the original assignment:

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

God’s first instruction to humanity was to manage and oversee creation. We’ve failed, miserably. Even the “religious” or bible-readers among us. We love the verse, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But most of us don’t use the “newness” to spur us on to being catalysts of more newness—for all living things around us.

Newness starts as a seed within, but it has to work its way out—into ALL THE THINGS. And you and I have a part to play.