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God-Shaped Holes


            The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— 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. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)


          This week’s focus is on restoration. This isn’t the same as the repayment of a few weeks ago. This isn’t about restoring one’s fortunes so much as restoring the one. Given that today has been another of those days in which I’ve gotten things done, but not the things I originally planned. And, of course, because I haven’t done the things I planned, I tend to feel like a failure. It’s a minor way to be a failure, but a rose by any other name… It’s a tiny thing, but illustrative, because in my molehill failure that I tend to make into a mountain, I find a longing to be restored, to be made whole, to be complete – to not be a failure. 
         In each person’s life, there is this same sense. We know we are failures. We know we are broken, flawed, damaged, sinful, failed, incomplete, etc., and we long to be whole, perfect, righteous, successful, complete, etc. While we may not put these words to it, we have what Blaise Pascal called a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts, and until it is filled by God, everything else that we try to put in not only doesn’t fit or work, but it doesn’t ease the sense of emptiness for long. 
          Even for the Christian, this vacuum cannot be completely filled, our damage cannot be entirely healed until we are restored to Him, until we are with Him, until we are in Heaven. And it is this desire for restoration that we must endure on the one hand, but prize on the other. It’s not pleasant and it humbles us by reminding us of our failures, but it also speaks to us of a future filling and that should give us hope.

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