A Lesson from Daddy

The other day I was traveling with my dad. As he drove I looked out the window noting the trees and all of creation, admiring such an incredible thing! Daddy spoke and said something like, “Isn’t it interesting to think that everything we see is trying to return to its original state?”

It halted my “Pollyanna thinking” and my mind changed directions. It was true. Driving by a vacant building, the evidence was present. The dilapidated building had vegetation all in and around it. After a few years it would no longer be visible from the highway. If left uncared for, certainly all things would return to its original, overgrown, unkempt state.

I have thought about Daddy’s statement so much over the last few weeks there in the Texas and here in Ghana as I travel and it reminds me of a passage in Romans chapter eight that talks about the future glory in store.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed in us. For creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Is it not true with us? Just as all of creation wants to return to its original state, so too does the fleshly, worldly spirit want us to return to its subjection instead of remaining in Christ Jesus. But we have been declared a “new creation” right? (2 Cor. 5:17) True. But our flesh will always be a part of us and just as the vacant building will begin to collapse and be taken over by the life around it, so it will be the same with our own neglected spirits. If uncared for, the cares of this world are sure to come in and invade and even the work that was first done in our life will be taken over and pushed out. (Mark 4:19)

“Creation groans…” “Creation waits in eager expectation…” “hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into glorious freedom…”

The hope that we have is in Christ. One day, this world will pass away and Hope will play out and this groaning, waiting, frustration…all of this will be past tense as we bask in the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

So until then, I will groan and eagerly wait. I’ll not leave my spirit to be taken over by this world. The seed that has been planted I’ll continue to water with the Words of Scripture and present this seed to others for encouragement in Christ. I’ll seek God’s ways and direction and fight against decay and rust. I’ll not sit in one place and I’ll do my best not to be caught off guard.

Thanks Daddy for the lesson!