Groaning with All Creation
Groaning with All Creation
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8: 22-23
I have made the trip to the maternity ward with my wife three times as an expectant father. Outwardly, I sought to be present in body, soul, and spirit to my struggling spouse in her time of need. As a Lamaze-trained husband, I gasped when she gasped, breathed on queue, and sought to be a bastion of support and strength. As it turns out, she was unimpressed. She obviously did need me, but my function was better served as a human punching bag during her intense contractions. It was an unexpected role, but oddly helpful to my wife. In the ensuing intervals, between her left hook and her right-handed scratch, I found myself secretly grateful that males are exempt from such an ordeal.
Paul’s letter to the church in Rome reminds me of those days in the hospital. My wife and I both eagerly anticipated the life in her womb, but I have no doubt that her sense of urgency was more pressing than mine. Her body was literally groaning and heaving in labor pains, aching for that long awaited release that would culminate in new life. She wasn’t just waiting for it. She had to have it. She needed it - every muscle, every nerve, every thought, every breath, and every fiber of her being stood at rapt attention in anticipation. I was also eagerly expectant, but my vicarious yearning was necessarily less primal, less physical, less gut wrenching. After all, it was not my body groaning in labor pains.
Yet for those of us who have received “the first fruits of the Spirit,” that is how it should be. We groan with all creation while we “wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” Paul is not describing a passive or deeply sympathetic longing as some type of third party observer. He is going further. We who have tasted the saving work of Christ in us are groaning inwardly for the redemption of the cosmos. We are not just waiting for it. We have to have it – every muscle, every nerve, every thought, every breath, and every fiber of our being stands at rapt attention in anticipation. In our labor, we cry out for justice, we gasp at needless suffering, we ache for real peace, and we yearn for sacrificial love, we pray for healing forgiveness and we long for spontaneous generosity. Our bodies are literally aching for that long awaited release that will culminate in a new heaven and a new earth. In that sure and certain hope, we await the birth of the world to come and the promised return of the Messiah. In the meantime, we can take comfort in knowing that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding on our behalf, with sighs too deep for words.” (Rom. 8:26)
