A Creation Groaning to Be Made New

Hello everyone!

Forgive my short absence, but a lot has happened since I last posted. On Friday, June 24, my wife and I welcomed our firstborn into the world - a daughter, Eliana Lois. She is a cutey who has stolen her daddy's heart and who has changed her parents' lives forever.

To be in that delivery room as my wife valiantly strained toward the birth of our little one was a humbling experience. Emotions are heightened. In one moment, there is pain, frustration, and exhaustion. I even caught myself thinking at one point, "What if birth doesn't happen? What if we can't make it to the finish?" Blessedly, that fleeting thought was not a premonition of things to come. Hard work, pushing, and pain intensified, and then in a moment it was done and seemingly forgotten as our little girl emerged into the arms of her mother.

Even though we have no evidence that Paul was ever married or a father, it seems that he is intimately knowledgeable about the process of childbirth as he writes Romans 8:22-23: "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." With every tornado, hurricane, wildfire, flood, drought, and earthquake, we experience a creation groaning toward a hoped-for finish. We experience in our own bodies the same phenomenon as we are given a front-row seat to our own frailty and mortality. We might be tempted to ask ourselves the question, "What if new birth never happens? What if we can't make it to the finish?" But just as such a fear didn't translate into reality in the delivery room, so God promises that it won't be reality for us either. Creation, groaning, will at last reach its fulfillment. We, presently falling apart, will reach our fulfillment. And in an instant, pain and frustration will give way to unspeakable joy and new creation. Consider the turn around from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday...

As every mother knows, pregnancy and labor doesn't last forever, even if it feels like it at the time. Thanks be to God!