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, including the new bodies he has promised us. (Romans 8:23)
There is a human and holy frustration that permeates throughout life in this world. We want to live and yet we are headed toward death. We want comfort and glory and life brings us suffering and humiliation. What hope is there for a better life?
The hope that we need for life in this world and forever is found in Jesus. Jesus has turned reality inside out by coming in weakness and humiliation and choosing to suffer and die on a cross to give us a life more glorious than we could ever dream. That life is glorious because it is life with Jesus. His presence with us soothes the pain of this world and helps us to see that, in the midst of the deepest, darkest, scariest moments of our life, his promise of resurrection life is true.
So we groan with sorrow over what is now and we groan with longing for what is to come. But we lean forward into the future, even into our own death, because we know that Jesus has remodeled death into the gateway of our transformation.
Dear Jesus, please help me to bring my groanings to you. Amen.
Farewell to Shadowlands 