All Things Return To Him

WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ

How God Restores What is Lost

Loss is part and parcel to our human condition. No matter where we are in our lives, each and every one of us will experience loss at some point. Loss of a relationship. Loss of a marriage. Loss of a job, and ultimately, loss our own life or that of someone close to us. God’s people are no strangers to loss either. Consider the words of Job who had his household and possessions plundered by Satan:

Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. (Job 16:7)

Like Job, it is easy for us to interpret any amount of loss as punishment or chastisement from God. “Why me?!” We cry out as we search in vain for whatever sin or misdeed we committed that triggered the loss. The torment of not knowing God’s reasons for taking from us can be just as difficult as the loss itself.

And yet, that is not the end of the story for Job. We find out later that all his loss, all his unjust suffering has not left Job obliterated. Rather, it results in his restoration, even surpassing what he had before:

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. (Job 42:10-11)

We see in the Biblical narrative the theme of God as the one who gathers up the shattered bits and pieces of our lives and restores them to their former glory. Even that which seems impossible to restore is possible for God:

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. (Joel 2:25)

For each of us these “lost years” will look different. They are the years spent searching for answers. They are the years of love and loss. They are the years of growth and harvest, and the years of drought and famine. And although it seems the years have been devoured with nothing to be shown for them, God hears the cries of his servant:

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” (Exodus 3:7)

As we begin this year, know that the same God who led the Israelites out of Egypt is the God who we see in the face of our Lord Jesus the great restorer. He is the God who restores the house of Israel and the throne of David as their messiah hung on a cross. He is the one who restores Peter after denying our Lord three times. He brings light out of darkness, and life from death. He avenges the martyrs and brings justice to the wicked.

Whether or not we believe the past years to be lost, they are always to be found in him, who is without beginning or end (Rev 1:8). He releases us from the burden of searching for what was lost, as the good shepherd will restore all, even if he must lay down his life for it (John 10:11).