By Pastor Bob DeKlavon
PART 1: “WHIMSICAL”
Isolation has meant people doing things they might not otherwise do. My wife decided to scan all our pictures so she would have them on our computer. Sounds reasonable—right? Some 10,000 pictures later—she noticed that her left arm was sore. Doing that same motion over and over and over….well……groan.
A man at our church decided to work at the church during isolation. He is on the ‘other side’ of 80 but he decided he would paint by the steps leading up to our stage. This meant, lying down and meticulously painting over one ‘brand new step’ after another. When done—he could barely get up, let alone move. Groan.
A relative who shall remain nameless talked to me about eating all the time since she can’t get out. Literal groaning.
PART 2: “CRITICAL”
On the other side of this are people going through situations of ‘real groaning.’ We hear of doctors and nurses working to the point of exhaustion. One nurse wrote about losing 3 patients in 8 hours and one had done well a half hour prior to passing. We just sent a friend of a relative to the hospital and he is there alone. A relative of church members has the virus and cannot have visitors. People in our church have lost jobs and some are facing tough times. These are critical times of groaning.
PART 3: “BIBLICAL”
As a minister, I have been asked: “is this virus God’s judgment on the world?” My ‘simple’ answer is that the world has already been judged—this is just the result of that judgment. In John 3:17—we are told that Jesus did not come into the world to judge the world. The end of that verse says that Jesus came that the world should be saved through Him.
So, we find in Romans 8—that the world ‘groans’ too as it suffers the effects of sin.
Romans 8:22 says:
“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”
Romans 8:23 adds:
“And not only this, but also, we ourselves…groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
One day—there will be a new heaven and a new earth. One day—the effects of sin will be destroyed. Until then—we ‘groan’ yet, as Christians—not in the same way as those without Christ. We know the beginning of God’s story and we also know the end—we just groan until we get there.