All creation groans...

OK, here we go - a confession of sorts, but not really. I was flipping through the channels the other night, and came across TBS and the show "Sex in the City." I stopped and watched it for a moment. There's the confession. But let me tell you why: I noticed that the main characters were on a cruise around New York, and the reason I knew this was because in the background loomed the World Trade Center towers. I honestly could not tell you what the dialogue was. All I know is that I was mesmerized as I viewed the Towers.

I remember them well, driving up the Jersey Turnpike on my way back from countless trips as a teenager to Six Flags Great Adventure, or driving back from a trip down South. I am sure once or twice I broke down in full view of them (the Vince Lombardi rest stop)! But I remember the Twin Towers so vividly because you could see them so clearly as you drove up I-95, even though you were still 30 minutes away from the GW Bridge. I personally loved the site of these two towers, because they represented a place I dreamt about, and also it meant that I was close to home.

Four years ago, they fell. The world changed. And as I sat there watching TBS the other night, I remembered the world pre-9-11. We had warning signs all over the place the previous 8-10 years before hand that things would change, but when they fell, everything changed. Perhaps not all for bad.

This year, how things have changed. In the span of 4 weeks, two monster hurricanes, Katrina and Rita threaten to change us again. Perhaps for the better when all is said and done - I hope. But it seems to me that the world is getting closer and closer to ending. Romans 8:21-22 tell us, "All creation anticipates 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." Creation is groaning with tsunamis and hurricanes and earthquakes and tornadoes.

One day, all of creation will be renewed according to Revelation 21:1, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone." God will shut the door finally and completely on this old earth, and then we will wake up with God making all things new. But in the meantime, the world continues to groan, aching and anticipating the day when it will be renewed.

If you have never read the book by CS Lewis, The Last Battle, you ought to. I have read (and reread) this beautiful alleghoric description of the world's end and eternity's beginning so many times. I just re-read it for the umpteenth time last week. My heart soars with desire and longing for heaven when I read it.

Something else I recently read (I believe it was in a John Piper sermon) reminded me that every time we pray, "May Your Kingdom Come" (the Lord's prayer), we are praying for the end of the world and for His kingdom to come, often not realizing that His kingdom coming will not be a painless, easy process for the world. The events, catastrophes, and judgments will be put into motion as our prayers of "may Your kingdom come" are answered. Revelation 8:1-5 talks about God storing up our prayers on the altar before His throne, and one day, pouring out the answers to those prayers resulting in judgment on the earth.

Hurricanes like Rita and Katrina and Hugo and Charley, etc. along with the earthquakes (including one this morning in Asia), cyclones and tsunamis are the earth's way of groaning. Every time something new and horrific happens, I remember that my prayers "may Your kingdom come" are being answered.

By the way, I changed the channel once I came back to my senses... :)