Wow. Today Paul says some amazing things that I don't think I've ever noticed before. He says that all of creation (that means the entire universe) was subjected to God's curse when Adam sinned, "against its will". Very interesting... seems that Paul is saying that the universe has a will. Of course, we're not sure exactly how literally to take that. But he goes on to say that it (creation) looks forward to the day when it will "join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay". Wow!
It's saying that we humans have been given a "foretaste" of what it will be like in the future, when all of creation will be redeemed. That's pretty amazing. So he's saying that all of creation wants to be "fixed" and made whole again, made perfect again, made eternal. And that that eternity rests inside of us humans already.
And he goes on to say that we humans are also looking forward to something we don't have yet - our perfect, eternal bodies. How cool will that be? And it lays to rest the silly notion of us "floating around in the clouds" with the angels, playing our harps and being bored. Heaven is going to be amazing. In fact, it's going to be SO amazing that Paul says (back at the beginning of the reading) that "what we suffer now is NOTHING compared to the glory he will reveal to us later". What does that mean? It means that as horrible as rape is, as terrible as Auschwitz was, they are nothing (not just less, not just a smaller amount... NOTHING) compared to how amazing and awesome the new heavens and new Earth will be.
That is mind blowing.
God, thank You for the wonderful gifts You have in store for us, and thank you for giving us humans that little foretaste to get us ready.
1 comment:
Can't wait, amen
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