By Pastor Don Schatz

We Are Not Alone

“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. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 8:22–25  New Revised Standard Version

We are not alone when things are not the way they are supposed to be.  We are not alone when things go wrong.  Creation itself groans under futility and decay, awaiting liberation alongside us.  The Fall into sin (Genesis 3:1-19) introduced pain, toil and mortality as fixtures of human existence.  Suffering, wrongness is woven into the fabric of a disordered world, rather than the exception.  Do you feel better now?  It is important to start here, however.  To face the reality that brokenness, whether experienced as suffering or resignation to knowing that things are not the way they are supposed to be, is part of not only human experience, but that of the whole created order.

 

BUT!  These realities are not final.  Creation knows that.  It waits, dare we say hopes, for restoration.  Lest we think that this is a human problem, lets go back to Genesis 3.  The writer could have added a final sentence to the chapter.  When all was said and done and Adam and Eve ejected from Paradise, God could have shouted in frustration, “This is not the way it is supposed to be!”  Because it wasn’t.  Rather than shouting and stomping off back to heaven, God acted.  By chapter’s end he had already acted.  He had promised redemption and restoration in Genesis 3:15.  That ‘promise action’ was fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ.  He walked out of the tomb victorious over the way things are not supposed to be.  For us.  For you.

 

Now, our action is to believe, trust and hope.  In other words, we don’t have to do anything.  Christ has restored us to life with the Lord God Almighty.  Even if, even when, things are not the way they are supposed to be, we truly are not alone.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado