A New Creation?? Our Eternal Purpose

How many times have you heard that you are a new creation in Christ? This is straight from 2 Corinthians 5:17. Or How many times have you heard that God will make a new heaven and a new earth? This is straight from Revelation 21. Or have we heard that the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay?(Romans 8) Then of course there is the famous John 3:16 passage. We have eternal life in Jesus. This is what I am talking about when I say God's plans are far bigger than we can even imagine. This goes far beyond what Christians at times make Christianity, that is merely a personal religious experience. The question that I am attempting to ask is what happens when we die? Or what is our eternal purpose?
I am by now means trying to fully answer this question and I am only scratching the surface of this misunderstood topic. But I hope that it at least gets all of us thinking far bigger than we ever have. For along time I thought that eternal life meant being with Jesus forever and worshipping Him forever. There will be a period where we will be with the Lord Jesus in heaven but as N.T. Wright says our emphasis should be on "life after life after death." This I am afraid is missing for our message to a world that disperately needs it. Will we just be sitting on a cloud playing our harps to Jesus? Or is there something bigger? Something so amazing that God has planned from the beginning of time?
The answer is yes! God will not obliterate his creation. He is going to remake and restore it! Creation along with humanity will be set free! God will make all things new (Revelation 21:9). It is in scripture in Isaiah 65, Revelation 21, Romans 8, and so on. God will make renew all things. The "life after life after death" is the life we live when we are raised from the dead and Jesus reigns and restores creation. This is our message to a world that is hurting and decaying. God has not only begun this in Jesus' death and resurrection but He will bring all these things to fruition at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is in the process of ridding the world of evil and death. Our "life after life after death" is a world where Jesus fully reigns and where evil and death no longer reign. And in this world we can truly be what God has always intended us to be, that is truly human.