In our last post from the book of Romans, we talked about suffering here on earth and the way a certain person, who’s close to me, has experienced a difficult childhood. And how this person shared his perspective on suffering as it relates to eternity. If you’re interested, you can read more here: What About Suffering?–Romans 8:1-18.

The timing was interesting, because that post, and several others about suffering and death and dying, came just before the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (I wrote about Kirk’s assassination and if you want to learn more, you can find that article here: Charlie Kirk and The Image of God.)

In today’s passage, Paul takes us beyond human suffering and expands his teaching to all of creation.

Romans 8:19-25

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

A Perfect Life

Imagine with me what a perfect life might look like: When I allow myself to dream of such a life, I imagine God fully present with me and my family. And He has given me a purpose. He’s given me important things to do in collaboration with Him. He’s given me His mission. He’s given me adventures to embark on. And these adventures are a perfect fit for me. Adventures I find fascinating. Adventures designed specifically for me. Adventures in which I’ll find great success because they’re adventures designed with me in Mind. I wake up in the morning excited to collaborate with God and Christ in these adventures. And when I’m in the presence of God and Christ, their faces light up when they see me. And for my family it’s the same.

And the environment we live in is perfect. Designed with us in Mind. Everywhere we look there’s beauty, wonder, and awe.

There’s no danger, no evil, no death, no entropy.

The overwhelming vibe is love and peace and joy.

Can you imagine?

What We Once Had

Imagining such a life might make us think of heaven. But if you think about it, we had all that once. We had it in the garden. And it was clearly God’s intention for us to live such a life, with Him, wrapped up in His love and peace and joy.

Last Sunday after church I had a conversation with my grandson Andrew about the Garden of Eden. We talked about why the God of Eternity might not want His brand-new baby humans to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I shared about how a dad or mom could teach a five-year-old how to drive a car, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do so. If a five-year-old tried to drive a 3,000 pound car, he might hurt himself and/or someone else. Andrew commented: “Yeah, so, God might want to wait until Adam and Eve were one or two thousand years old, so they would be ready to eat from that tree.”

I thought that was an impressively wise statement from a fourteen-year-old.

Later I remembered my nephew Kody, when he was five or six years old, jumped into the driver’s seat of his grandparent’s yellow Dodge Ram four-wheel drive pickup. Two other kids his age jumped into the cab with him. Kody knocked it into neutral and started to roll toward the edge of the driveway. The thing is, it happened at my dad and mom’s log cabin, which is on the side of a mountain in Talent, Oregon. So, there they were, rolling toward the edge with nothing between them and the mountainside–and little Kody behind the wheel. Fortunately, his grandmother was nearby. She quickly opened the door, pushed Kody out of the way, and slammed her foot on the brake.

Today, as we were talking about this misadventure, Kody’s grandmother commented: “Kids shouldn’t drive until their legs are long enough to reach the brakes.”

In the same way, brand new baby humans like Adam and Eve shouldn’t eat from the tree of knowledge until they’re ready for it.

Love Requires a Choice

During our conversation, Andrew and I also talked about how love requires a choice. I shared that if I forced my wife Kathy to live with me, and to be intimate with me, and Kathy had no choice in the matter: that’s not love. So, in the garden, God, who wanted a loving relationship with Adam and Eve, gave them a choice. The two brand new baby humans could allow the God of eternity to decide what’s right and what’s wrong, or, they could decide for themselves. Any parent will recognize the situation where the young child thinks they know better than their father or mother.

Of course, the two baby humans decided to disregard their Father’s warning. And we lost what we had.

We lost the perfect life.

The World is Not Right

I had a very close relationship with my dad. Especially as an adult. As an adult, I would call him my best friend. (Okay, so I would also call my wife Kathy my best friend, and also my sons Gabe and Nate, and also a few others–but you get the idea.) Anyway, my dad died several years ago and when he did, I was surprised at this particular feeling that came over me. And the feeling was this: an intense and disturbing perception that there was a terrible empty space in the world. There was an awful void where there shouldn’t be a void. I felt despair and distress because:

The world was not right.

But really, since that time in the garden, that’s how the world has always been.

The world is not right.

We lost the rightness of the world in the garden. We made a bad decision, and the world has not been right since.

As Paul writes, all of creation was subjected to futility. All of creation waits to be set free from its bondage to corruption. The whole creation groans.

And not only creation, but we ourselves.

Living in this fallen world is hard. There’s so much distress and despair. There’s a massive awful void where there shouldn’t be a massive awful void. Thank God for the hope of Jesus. As Paul says, in this hope we are saved.

Thank God for the hope of Jesus. I don’t think I could bear this life without Him.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

Kurt Cameron Bennett best known for his book Love Like Jesus. After attending church and studying the Bible for most of his adult life, he was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven-year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote Love Like Jesus for himself as much as for others. He currently lives in Hillsboro, Oregon, just a few miles from his son Gabe, daughter (-in-law) Charise, and grandson Andrew. He has another son Nate and daughter (-in-law) Anastasia who live in Sammamish, Washington. His blog, God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

Featured Image by Charles Woodruff using deepai.org