Groaning with Creation

 When my dad died I thought I may experience anger; anger towards him for leaving us so early or anger at God for taking him when he did. I knew that was a real feeling for many during loss. I wasn't angry at my dad nor God. But what I was angry about was the effects of sin. Not that personal sin caused my dad to die but the sin of the world that entered when Adam and Eve gave into temptation and ruined paradise. It was an anger I had been saddened by before when I met friends who had broken families, children who grew up without hope in a suffering city, or with the loss of children I never met. But with his passing, the reality of our fallen world felt even more tangible. 

Romans 8:22-23 reminds me of that same feeling I had with my dad's death. It is a pain that turns and twist in your stomach….

22For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 

Today is the first birth I've attended since my dad passed away. Watching this precious mama work through each contraction illustrated Paul's words to the Romans. Her body would tighten as her uterus contracted causing pain and discomfort that she couldn't control. She had to endure each contraction to meet her daughter. 

That's where our world is. Humanity forfeited our rights to perfect communion with God and now waits for that perfection again. There are moments where glimpses of Gods future kingdom are present on earth. The moment that mama saw her baby girl for the first time: perfection. Randy Alcorn says in his book, Heaven, “The pains of childbirth are analogous to the present suffering of mankind, animals, and the entire universe. But those sufferings are temporary because of the imminent miracle of birth. A far better world will be born out of this one, and a far better humanity will be born out of what we are now.”

We will suffer on this earth. We will die. But there is hope. Romans 8 explains:

18Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 

As believers we do not mourn like those that do not have hope because we believe that Jesus will once again establish his perfect world on this earth. The earth and all creation will be free from sin and death and we will be reconciled with all those we have lost. In the moments where the pains are so real, the twisting in my stomach is so tight, I have to cling to this truth. God’s work on this earth is not finished. There were be a time when Jesus returns to establish the new heavens and the new earth. When Jesus does return, he will judge the earth and all of its inhabitants. 

"Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)

I want you to hear this truth as well. God created each of you with a soul to worship and please him. My dad certainly did that while on this earth. He taught me that the word of God is true and he would want you to know that too. He would tell me to hope in Jesus’s return, tell others about his love, and enjoy each moment that I get to spend with those that God has placed in my life. Will you cling to that hope too? Jesus loves you, cares for you, and died for you in order that you may know him on this Earth and live with him forever.

God describes his New Heaven and New Earth through John, an apostle of Jesus, in the book of Revelation chapter 21. Doesn’t this sound wonderful….

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

While we wait for this “new earth,” we will continue to have suffering. That overwhelms me at times and has recently caused me to be anxious about what other losses may occur in my life. What is something happens to my children, to my husband, to me? Can I endure more pain? Can I live out my life to honor God? Can I really love my children and husband well, amidst so much sin and suffering? Waiting is hard but God’s presence is real. He will comfort me. He will comfort you. Ask him to enter your heart, reveal his truth to you, and be comforted, my friend, by the ruler of Heaven and Earth.