"We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." [Romans 8:22-23]
When my kids were in diapers, I could hardly wait for that piece of parenting to be over.
Don't get me wrong--there were absolutely wonderful things about those early years of their lives, through toddlerhood, before they were out of their Pampers. I can barely believe these days that I used to hold my daughter cradled in one arm, and now she's racing to be a teenager as fast as she can. I remember playing at the park with my son when we had a free Friday afternoon, and how he would run across the bridge over the creek, climb on every piece of playground equipment, and laugh out loud in his delightful bright voice. But diaper duty was never a highlight.
Changing diapers as a fact of life put a damper on what you could do, how long you could be away from home (or at least away from a space where you could change a diaper discreetly), and what accessories you needed to have wherever you went. It affected the rhythms of the day ("Are we ready to leave for the party?" "Wait, we better change diapers one more time before we get in the car..."), and it seemed to always hit at the least convenient moments. But it's part of the price of admission when you are a parent of a pre-potty-trained kiddo. There's no way around it--as the old song about the bear hunt goes, "you've gotta go through it."
Now, all through those years of toddlerhood, some part of me intellectually knew that the diaper thing wasn't forever. You live on planet Earth long enough, and you come to know how the seasons of life and stages of childhood typically go. So I knew that there would come a point when we were done we changing stations in public restrooms. And I knew that there would one day be a "Last Box of Diapers" we'd have to buy for our kids to use. But in the meantime, we never stopped changing diapers just because it wasn't fun or easy. Parents don't get to skip out on the diaper duty just because it won't be around forever. While you're in that stage, you have to do it, and you have to do it diligently, faithfully, and consistently, because you care about your child. And it isn't only a future version of your child that you love, but the present-tense child who is both adorable and also generates a lot of soiled diapers. Yes, there is a future on the horizon toward which you can look in which those old routines and accessories are no longer in your life, but in the meantime, you bear with what your children need now.
I want to suggest that there's a similar tension for the community of Jesus, too, as people who live in the tension between future hope and present-tense life as we know it. We are people who live in light of God's promise, at the last, to make all things new. And we are also simultaneously people who live in this world as it is, with all the violence, destruction, waste, greed, and ruin that we inflict on it and on each other. Both are true, and both are part of how we face each day. If we only ever think about the future when war is no more and nobody dies of hunger or exposure to the elements, we will be indifferent or oblivious to the suffering around us--and that ignorance will only increase the suffering (like if you just ignored the child with the dirty diaper rather than changing them--that makes it worse, even if you're not personally adding to the problem). And on the other hand, if we only ever keep our heads down in the present without a sense of future newness, it will be nearly impossible to avoid becoming resentful, bitter, and burned out at the thought that there is no hope for something better. We need to hold onto the hope that God is making all things new, and to let that be part of the reason we find strength and endurance to keep bearing with things as they are... and to do our part to make them better.
With children growing from infancy through toddlerhood into pre-school and kindergarten, you know that there's work to be done right now to help them where they are at, and there's also work going on inside them, developmentally, as they grow and change into human beings who can use the bathroom on their own, or hold their own cups, or take their own bites of macaroni and cheese. And with the world in which we live, we can hold onto hope that, indeed, God is making all things new, and at the same time we can understand our calling to help with messes that are happening right now. Just because one day there will be no hunger doesn't mean I don't have a calling to help feed my hungry neighbor now--in fact, that future hope is part of the reason I am called to help them now. Just because one day no one will have to live in fear of abuse from a violent spouse or romantic partner doesn't mean I can ignore the needs of those victims now--but just the opposite. Just because one day our weapons will be beaten into plowshares and pruning hooks doesn't mean I can be apathetic to those who are made into refugees today because an invading army razed their village to the ground, or robotic drones have blown up their home. We live with hope for the new creation, while living in this world as it is, and that means attending to the messes in this world right now, with eyes wide open to their existence. And we do that because of love--because we love God's creation, or at least because as people loved by God we are learning to love it as God does.
To be honest, for a lot of the last two millennia, we Christians have not always done a very good job at that. We have a habit of talking so much about life after death (and even then, often only as an otherworldly celestial "up there" rather than a renewed creation "down here") that we act as though we have no calling to care for the hurts of the world in which we are living now. We can distort our hope to sound only like "Jesus came to get souls into heaven," rather than Paul's way of saying it, that "all of creation is waiting for redemption, which includes our bodies and this physical world, too." And when we do that, we often shrug off the needs to care about hungry neighbors, entrenched poverty, the needs of those grappling with drug addiction, systemic racism, poison in our drinking water, or people around the world suffering in drought and record heat (the list could go on and on). But that's like saying, "I have no obligation to change diapers now because one day my kid will be old enough to be potty trained." While the second half of that sentence may well be true--one day your kids may not need diapers anymore--that doesn't get you off the hook for the needs right now, because you love your child. And you don't only love the future version of your child, but the present-moment child who requires a diaper bag and all the rest of the accessories and inconveniences that come with them.
As Christians, our calling is to learn to love the way God loves, which includes loving the world in both the present-tense as well as the future hope. And that kind of love means bearing with the world as it is, attending to its needs, and caring about the suffering in it right now, rather than writing it all off as "stuff that will go away one day in God's future." To love anyone is to love them as they are right now, even if there is also hope for growth, development, and renewal in the future. So we bear the messiness, the tediousness, the unpleasantness, and the lowliness of those serving roles now--whether it's changing diapers, cleaning up trash by the highway, organizing food for the local food bank, or keeping vigil with a dying friend. We do that because love calls us to bear with one another's needs in the present, even while we hope for a day when all those needs are met, and all things are made new.
One day, creation won't need our help to be cleaned up from industrial waste or toxic spills, and one day, our neighbors won't be at risk of going hungry. But today they do. Today we are called to love them in those needs, because we know God loves them enough to make all things new in the future.
Where are we being called to show our love today?
Lord God, give us the endurance to bear the needs of the world around us, even while we await the new and renewed creation you have promised.
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