Awkward And Hopeful

Romans 8:21-24 –

‘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,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved.’

I love conspiracy theories, particularly ones relating to UFOs and alien life forms. I love staring into a starry sky and thinking about how expansive the universe is. I’ve even thought about the theological implications of finding life on Mars….if they are sentient, would they experience their own fall? Would the Word need to take on alien flesh to redeem them? By now you probably think I’ve lost the plot. And that's the point. Any talk of future ‘comings to earth’ may resonate in popular imagination with UFOs and a guy in a tin-foil’ hat with a sign saying “The End is Near”.

Time and time again people have predicted that it was the so called ‘end of the world.’ Even in my lifetime the world was meant to end in 1999 with the Y2K bug...it didn't. Then it was supposed to end in 2012 at the end of the Mayan Calendar. Conspirators and failed predictions have given society at large an aversion and suspicion of things to come.

Now enter one of the most essential, beautiful, hopeful and yet awkward pieces of christian belief...the return of Christ. I don’t know about you but I personally feel hesitant to dwell on this too long with non-believers at risk of coming across like a madman in a tin-foil hat! But we as Christians need to reignite the hopeful beacon of truth that one day Jesus will return! He will judge the living and the dead. Yes, that feels uncomfortable….So let's get sharing our faith. But it’s so much more than future hope. It’s a present hope, based in a future reality. 

Do you look at your world and wish for things to be different? One day they will be. Like me, do you ever find yourself saying, “If you are a good God, then why don't you end this suffering?” The truth is, one day he will. 

Prayer – I thank you Jesus that one day you will return and put everything right. Help me to live with the hope of this today.

Editor: Have a really blessed Christmas and the devotionals will start again on January 4th.