Earth Day Birth Pangs

Sedona, AZ © Karla Hall 2010

I dont live on an old, decrepit Earth! I live on a gloriously alive and beautiful place created by God that rejoices in its Creator and is pregnant with anticipation of the joy thats coming next! The idea that our earth is old, wheezing and barely making it is really silly...yes, its groaning, yes, we can do things to be good stewards of our home here, but I feel the guilt and finger-pointing Messiah complex that is often associated with "Earth Day" totally misses the point.


Romans chapter 8 is one of the most amazing places in the whole Bible, and The Message translation really brings out the relationship we have to the earth..hopefully it will help explain better than I can:

© Karla Hall 2010

"This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!"

Sedona Az, © Karla Hall 2010

"That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens."

"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."

~Roman 8:15-25 (The Message translation)

Skye Portal © Karla Hall 2005