Romans 8:22 says, "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now."
Do you ever hear the earth groaning in pain? Sometimes I think I do when the air is full of fumes and there is trash in heaps in otherwise beautiful places. What has happened to our respect of all things created? What has happened to our respect for one another?
Later in verse 23 it says, " And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body."
I have had many suggest that the passage in Philippians 2:14, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing;" meant we were to pretty much live in a constant state of contentment, as if content is the common emotion of truly holy people. But in Romans 8:23 I get a totally different picture. Sometimes groaning is an act of holiness. Sometimes Godly people have no other response but to groan...
Holy groaning isn't in itself a groaning about the food, or lack there of, it isn't about what we have or don't have... It is about our deep, deep longing for more, for justice, for peace and for God's creation to be brought back to His original intent.
In music, if one listens very carefully he (or she) may hear "sympathetic vibrations", overtones which resonate with the first tone. One example is where one string, properly tuned, vibrates along with another that had been set in motion (whether it's been struck as in a piano or set in motion by a bow as with a violin). Even though the second string was not initially touched, it vibrates in harmony with the first.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think we can groan "in harmony" with the Creator, when we're properly in tune with Him, responding in sympathy with God and one another at what we see in the world around us.