Throughout the Bible, God uses the metaphors of light and darkness and of day and night to highlight a constant tension. Will God’s light flourish and fill creation, or will God’s creation fall back into the original darkness, the formlessness and emptiness in which God started to create?

We feel that tension every time we hear about another war, natural disaster, or corrupt leader. The tension comes home when we don’t have enough money to make ends meet, when our relationships break, and when we receive news that the battle for life and death is in our own bodies. We wonder, “Will we ever get out of this mess?”

God gently reassures John and us that our present sufferings will not have the final word. God shows John that through Jesus a day is coming when all of life will flourish beyond John’s wildest imaginings. Fruit trees whose very leaves bring healing to all the peoples of the world will flourish in the heart of God’s new creation, bearing new crops every month!

God also reveals that “there will be no more night” in this new creation. The threat of darkness and all that it symbolizes throughout the Bible will be removed. By God’s lavish grace, evil will no longer distort or diminish life anywhere within God’s new creation. Even now, God is at work making everything new!