Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Creation, Broken by Sin


For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. -- Romans 8:19-22

Yesterday, a tiger escaped from its enclosure at the San Francisco zoo, killing one person and mauling two others. Personally, this is one of my greatest fears--being eaten by an animal. I have fought to control a fear of unfamiliar dogs. I have fought against the very unlikely fear that I will be eaten by a lion or a tiger. And most of all, the stories of survivors of grizzly bear attacks have haunted me when I have given in to thinking about them.

But this is not how it is supposed to be! In the beginning, Adam was in charge of the animals, and he brought them before him to be named without fearing for his life from a tiger or a lion or a bear. Only after Adam fell into sin did God curse creation. Only then did creation become broken and "subjected to futility." And only after Jesus returns will this place be fully restored!

Come Lord Jesus!

Todd

2 comments:

Mary said...

Strangely, I have no fear of being attacked by an animal. Wes read about the story today and came up to me and said "what if I get a call saying you're crushed? What would I do?" I plan to work with elephants, hence the crushed statement. I replied rather nonchalantly, "if it happens, it happens." It's rather eerie how calm I feel about the very real possibility of being attacked by a wild animal while working with them. I am more terrified of a human harming me and constantly fight off "unlikely to happen" fears of horrible deaths at the hands of another person. I guess I have to be calm about something like this though...timidity doesn't work in the animal world. But the spiders can stay by themselves. No need for me to be there. If it's any comfort, attacks by captive animals are extremely rare and typically only happen when they are provoked. Even in the wild, animal attacks are usually done in defense or out of sheer desperation (i.e. starvation). Most animals have learned to fear humans so much that they run away.

Tell you what, if ever an animal is on the loose, feel free to throw me in front of you. As odd as it sounds, I honestly don't mind. :)

Anonymous said...

"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption"

Crucial to the creationist with many implications. Sheds an entirely different light on evolution and interpreting the evidence. The food chain shouldn't exist, gap theory cannot be spiritually consistent (wages of sin (not evolution) is death) with creation.