"Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches; it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River. Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the filed feed on it. Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted. The have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved." Psalm 80:7-19

Restoration – exactly what is it I/you/we want to be restored to? God desires we be restored to the condition He created us in; not some earlier version of our brokenness. God sets the conditions for life with Him, do I accept or do I attempt to set the conditions as I desire them to be. God created, God sent Jesus to restore – O that I/you/we never turn back from God; that God give me/you/us life, and that I/you/we call His name not rely on others to save me/you/us. Events this week reinforce that restoration of God’s image comes only through God’s saving grace!