Winter storms are raging through California with hail, torrential rain and winds to 70 miles per hour. Earthquakes continue to devastate Haiti. We cannot control the forces of nature that are bringing destruction all around us, perhaps in our homes, into the lives of people we know, and certainly into the lives of people we care about around the world. The volatile nature of the world in which we live, a world that groans because things are not as God intended them to be, led Paul to write:

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, ³if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. ⁴For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

The world groans and we groan, longing for things to be right in this world, in our lives and in our hearts. We long for that which is eternal – we may not know it, but we long for it – deeply because we were created for the eternal. Adam and Eve were not created to die. Death was punishment for disobeying God’s command; death was ushered in because Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. Their eyes were opened; they found themselves to be naked before one another and before God. They covered themselves, they hid, they blamed, and they postured to try to undo what they had done.

God stepped in to re-create in them clean hearts, to restore the broken relationship and to redeem them from the destruction they created. He re-clothe them with Christ’s righteousness, hence Paul’s comforting words to the people of Corinth and to us.

Today we are covered with the clothes of the righteousness of Christ and will not be found naked, ashamed and vulnerable before our creator. We have been covered with His life which swallows up that which will pass away. Our vision is clear: we live on this earth in our homes, in our bodies which are temporary; we live IN Christ who is eternal.

Eternal hope in Christ breeds hope for today even amid destruction. Christians go into places and situations where needs are overwhelming. They bring hope, speak hope and work hope into lives by the word of life who lives in them, speaks through them and works through them. Christians know that suffering and destruction is swallowed up in the life of Christ through the eternal hope he brings.

We make ourselves feel guilty because we see so much suffering and feel selfish that we are suffering. We try to ignore or push away or make light of the suffering in our own hearts or homes; we stay really busy trying to bring light and hope to others but won’t allow others to bring light and hope to us. We are called to allow God’s word to touch us deeply to recreate, restore and redeem our hearts and souls, our lives in him.

We long for the eternal. May God grant us courage to examine our lives to see where we are trying to create the eternal now out of things temporal. May God grant us boldness to confidently pray him into our lives to restore so that we might reach out to restore; to recreate so that we might speak him into devastation. May his peace guard our hearts. Blessings IN Christ, Cindy

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