Fuel for the Weekend: When the Earth Groaned

When the earth groaned.

Part of Japan sank two feet deeper into the ocean.

And moved thirteen feet closer to the United States.

Its land widened.

The planet’s mass shifted and changed its axis.

Lives shattered.

When the earth groaned.

It triggered heaves in people across the world.

Widening our hearts.

Drawing us closer to each other.

Plunging us deeper into Him.

Reminding us that we live in a fallen and fragile world.

Where beauty and brokenness live side by side.

And that calamity can strike in any place at any moment.

That we can only find our balance in the One who set the earth on its axis.

The One Whose ways are higher than our ways and Whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

And Who will ultimately work everything out for the good of those who love Him.

So we wait and cling to hope and hope in Hope.

Knowing nothing can separate us from His love and care and comfort.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. ~Romans 8:22-28 (Message)