As most people who have studied such things know, the notion of resurrection is fundamental to Christianity (as it is, in some form, for other religions as well).  The dimensions and implications of the resurrection are of course varied and profound; today, I'd like to talk about its connection to the idea of restoration.  God talks repeatedly in the Bible about his ability to restore us, to restore what we may have lost, be it years, meaning, vocation, direction, hope, loved ones, and on and on.  This is not to say that God will bring these things back, for he understands that we cannot fully undo the physical effects of lost time.  It is to say, however, that God can, by virtue of his inexhaustible power and authority, renew and overcome the pain of anything we may have lost.  He can restore our hope and revive our vision.
     We could not believe this unless we also believe in resurrection.  Without resurrection, without the possibility of another day, we are lost.  Ironically, although we all want to believe in renewal and restoration and, consciously or not, place our trust in the cause and effect construct of the cosmos to do so, we often overlook that every dream of newness depends on physical laws whose origin we cannot fully fathom or explain.  We dream, as it were, in a myth.
     Put another way, unless God is real, restoration means nothing, absolutely nothing at all.  Why do we otherwise dream?