For while we may imagine the new creation to be a rewind-act of reversing the effects of the fall and a return to an innocent Edenic state of being, it is actually so much more. “The restorative character of re-creation is even bigger, even weightier, than that of creation. The special mission of the Son opens [us] . . . to an even deeper communion, an even deeper story, an even deeper life, an even deeper love,” as one theologian maintains.8
