Designed For "Forever"

Time passes.
Some amongst us claim to be impervious. Untouched. Invulnerable.

I scarcely can even attempt belief of that claim. I try. I observe people glossing over loss, shaking it off.

Still - I am not a believer.

Death and grief, finality and loss are intangibly encompassed in time, existing only because we are captive to it. But is time really the culprit?

Perhaps. At least time as we now know it.

Because somehow He established night and day, sun and moon, cycles and seasons - and mankind and creation was unaffected. But the day came when sin broke through, wreaking havoc, bringing corruption, setting the whole of nature on end.

And now? Now all of creation GROANS and SUFFERS for release from decay and death. All of creation earnestly longs to be liberated. Because we, indeed all of creation, are held captive.

I knew there was cause for my disbelief. And there it is. "...all of creation..."

There is reason for deep grief at loss. There is genuine cause for keen heartache with seasons passing. We want to grip, hold fast, retain forever because we were designed for "forever" things.

But now instead we face death and loss, both inevitable with time as we know it, linear and forward only. Time is a thief, a painfully empty liar who mocks us, bringing seasons of joy only to steal them away again. Always.

Flood and fire come. A home is gone. Permanently changed.
Divorce destroys. A relationship lost. Irreparably damaged.
A marriage partner dies. A covenant lived out and now ended.

Finality. Never to be again. Pain so deep it is incomprehensible.

We should not be surprised but should rather expect and accept accumulation of such pain. If all of creation is not yet immune, neither are we.

But there is a greater plan and we are not without great hope! As His children who receive His grace, we join with all of creation:

But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) Romans 8.20-25 NLT