Creation Groans.
“For creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God” -Romans 8:19
Have you ever waited for something? An exam result, an email, a delivery? (a bit longer if Hermes has it). Think about all of the emotions you might experience when you’ve waited for something. Excitement, anticipation, hopefulness, sometimes even frustration at how long it may be taking. Waiting for something brings a range of emotions, but that’s only because you understand the value of the thing you’re waiting for.
In Romans 8:19, this is the scenario Paul describes the world to be in. They’re waiting, with an “eager longing”, and they’re waiting for us. For me this scripture speaks so well to our charge as disciples in this world. We have been formed and fashioned by the hands of God to be solutions to issues in society. Sometimes we look at the fallen state of this world, the injustice, the poverty, the wickedness, and our first response is “God we need an answer!”. Well, I firmly believe that whilst God holds all answers in His hand, He also used His hands to create answers.
A principle we see in Scripture time and time again is that God raises people as answers to a problem within their generation. One of the reasons for Adam’s existence was because God had finished creating the world, looked and saw there “there was no man to till the ground” (Genesis 2:5). Two verses later, He raises Adam from the dust and in verse 15 the Bible says “God put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it”. He was raised in response to a problem God saw lurking on the face of the Earth.
So there’s Biblical precedent for God forming men to send them to issues in the Earth, and the same applies to us, there are injustices in this world we have been specifically crafted as an answer to. But the key is that we “manifest as sons of God”. Now yes, there is a greater manifestation that awaits us at the second coming of Jesus, but we’re also not called to sit by idly as the world continues in perversion. Creation is groaning, like a woman in labour, desperate for her child to be released. Creation is waiting on you, (yes you that’s reading this) to not just know you are a son but live like you are too. There are whole families, whole industries waiting on you, groaning for you! How will you respond?
