Creation Groans
For a split second I stared into his big doe eyes, I felt bad for him, he had nowhere to go. Poor deer, no doubt his home was now a storage facility or a carwash. I imagine he was standing there groaning, thinking, “Things are not as they should be.”
Have you ever been so frustrated that you did not have the ability to articulate how you felt? That is called groaning and it goes a little something like this, “Ugggghh!”
There is plenty of groaning in the Bible, the Israelites groaned, David groaned, Paul said that creation groans. Creation groans and so do those who are filled with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:22-23). We groan for the same reason that poor deer groaned, because things are not as they should be. Man’s job was to manage the world but he decided that instead of partnering with God, he would rather be God. That is a classic example of bad management. Creation cannot meet its full potential under bad management, that is frustrating, so it groans.
In Romans 8, Paul talks about the glory that will be revealed in man (18). Indeed, there is something super special about man that has yet to be revealed. The human mind and body are already pretty amazing, what more could there be?
We are often our worst critics, beating ourselves up over things we cannot control like physical characteristics, things God gave us. There is definitely a market these days for changing anything you are unhappy with but what if the very things we desire to change are the exact things that will work for us in glory? What if the God given characteristics that make us all so different in this life, like our personalities and physical attributes, are actually meant to work in our favor when our glory is revealed?
The enemy loves to see people unhappy with who God made them. He loves to see us try to change things that could be of actual value to us in eternity. Our physical bodies cannot inherit eternity but God does not scrap them, He transforms them (1 Cor. 15:50-51). The dead in Christ will rise first, their bodies resurrected. The raptured saints will be caught up in the air, both to receive glorified bodies (1 Thess. 4). Whether you were cremated, dismembered, an amputee, in a box six feet under or ashes scattered over the sea, He is going to gather up the missing pieces from far and wide and put them back together again. God utilizes our physical bodies because therein lies actual untapped glory, waiting to be revealed; like a seed to a plant.
A worthless looking little seed goes into the ground, decades later it becomes a gorgeous, towering cedar tree. Who would ‘a thunk it? The coming glory is not only revealed to us in Jesus Christ but it is revealed in us! Do not try to change who God made you. We all have roles in eternity and our entire make up is geared toward that role, it is just waiting to be revealed. Do not waste your lifetime trying to be something else or someone else, you were created in God’s image, exactly how He wanted you to be, for now and into eternity. The next time your God given traits are disparaged by others or even by yourself, think about why the enemy would want you to hate that particular aspect. Could that attribute actually be priceless in eternity?
There is a common misconception that eternity is a place full of cloud sitting, harp playing, milk and honey consumption…try again. Eternity is a civilization, one like we could never imagine because we have always been under bad management. Picture a perfect world, then scrap that idea because it does not come close to the Creators idea of perfection. That is what Paul was talking about, we have no idea what is in store for us and so we wait, frustrated as ever. Yes, following Jesus can be frustrating because when you are filled with the Holy Spirit you know the truth and you groan because things are not as they should be, but there is good news! God hears your groaning and He has got a plan. This world is about to be under New Management! Just a little while longer. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He will strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Ps. 27:14).
