Verse of the Day for April 27

This is one of the few places in Revelation where God speaks directly, and what he says is five words long.

Behold, I make all things new.

Not all new things. All things new — the same things, renewed. It is the difference between a replacement and a restoration, and John's grammar is doing that deliberately.

The verse before describes what goes: no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

And in the middle of it, God wipes away tears with his own hand, which is a very small gesture in a book full of enormous ones.

Then he tells John to write, because these words are true and faithful. The instruction to write suggests somebody was going to need it in a form they could re-read.

A month about renewal ends here on purpose. Every renewal before this one is partial and is a rehearsal for the one that is not.

Everything renewed in April will wear out again. That is not cynicism; it is why this verse is in the Bible.

He wipes the tears personally. Whoever wrote that had thought about what comfort actually looks like.