Due Date

My firstborn son is due today. Over the last 9 months, we have spent considerable time preparing our home and lives for his arrival. Watching my wife carry our child has not only given me a much deeper respect and appreciation for her, but it has shed new light on the rich meaning of Romans 8:19 - 22.

Post-fall, we occupy a world that groans as in the pains of childbirth. Something has gone terribly wrong, and the creation awaits in eager expectation for everything to be made right. The end of my wife's toil and labor will be revelation, the revelation of our firstborn. I have no doubt she will cry tears of joy as she meets the one she has labored so intensely to bring into this world. Just as her labor as an end in view, so also does the creation of the world. The Scriptures reveal that the toil and labor of history will also end in revelation. Yet, this revelation will be of the sons of God, those who have been purchased by the work of "the firstborn over all creation." Creation waits in eager anticipation, but so do we. We wait for that day when our toil and labor will end, and Christ is revealed in all His glory. As tired saints worship around the throne of grace the one who labored for us and for our salvation, we, like I imagine my own wife, will consider every struggle as nothing compared to the infinite greatness of seeing His face. The one through whom all things were created will be the one through whom history is consumated.

So, on our due date and on yet another day in the march of Christ's kingdom, I say both Maranatha and, how many more moments must this waiting last?!