choose life, children of God
be your true self, because creation needs you
“The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Romans 8:19).
The apostle Paul appears to make a supposition. We humans live in shadow. We do not stand forth into light. We await being revealed. We await revelation. We await apocalypse, that is, being made visible.
In his book, Detox Your Spirit, Charles Magaiza says about the above scripture, “With anticipation every created thing looks forward to the manifestation of the [children] of God. When the [children] of God are disclosed, they bring answers to the questions all creation has been asking.” (Kindle edition, Chapter 7, section 38, paragraph 2.)
All creation yearns for the children of God to be unveiled. They have the answers! When that unveiling occurs, the children of God will “bring a new order, the right order into all things.” (7.38.3)
Who are “the children of God” Paul refers to in this passage? In verse 14, we read, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Who are these led by the Spirit?
There are various avenues of answers, but it is quite likely in the end the unveiling of verse 19 will reveal all of humanity. That would indeed be worthy of creation’s yearning!
Magaiza: “God will entrust His power to the one that is led and who is under the control of His Spirit. If control is not there, abuse is imminent, and creation will be punished by one who is meant to benefit it.” (7.39.2–3) Magaiza focuses on control. Who controls us? Who do we permit such control?
Whose job is it to bring that new order, that right order? It falls to each and every one of us. Are we led by the Spirit of life? How is it that we punish creation? Understand, when we ponder “all creation,” that includes us!
Our world needs life. I’ll wager that statement isn’t a great surprise, but maybe it bears a deeper look. One of our sad talents is making war. We continue to perfect that appalling art. Besides depriving each other of life, we impose the same finality on the animals, with whom we share the planet. We destroy plant life. We obliterate buildings and cities. We foolishly annihilate in a moment what took years to create.
Thus, we truly do have a choice.
Visiting the Old Testament, the Lord declares in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”
Okay, so we have life and blessings versus death and curses. There’s only one way to go, isn’t there? It would seem to be obvious. But revisiting Paul, there is still the suspicion we humans tend to love the shadow, to irrationally choose the ways of death. We choose the ways of sickness, selfishness, cynicism.
As we claw our way into being who we truly are — those who seek to undue the damage done to creation — we might squabble about what others are doing or not doing. That accomplishes very little. Rather, we are called to first set an example. There is the saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
It is never too late to start again.
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Verse 20 continues, “loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Instead of passing along a generational curse, we pass along a generational blessing.
There is something ineffable about creation, an undefinable quality of being. There is, in essence, a spirit of creation. We have a call, a vocation, to bring life to the spirit. Or more precisely and properly, to participate in bringing life to that spirit. After all, it is a question of being led by the Spirit of God.
I often join a prayer group with folks from around the country and from around the world. Recently, a young woman who is serving the Lord in Kenya told a little story. She and a group of friends went to the slums of inner-city Nairobi. The people there were overjoyed to meet them. They said they rarely are visited from those outside their neighborhood. Some grandmothers with tears in their eyes poured out their hearts saying, “We have been seen.”
We have been seen.
There is a story in Genesis 16 in which Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) are advanced in years and still have no children. Sarai suggests to her husband that he procreate with Hagar, her youthful slave. And he does!
However Sarai confides to Abram she has had second thoughts, so Abram says she can do as she wishes to Hagar. She proceeds to make life hell for Hagar, so Hagar flees to the wilderness. But the Lord sees her and convinces her to return to Sarai, promising that the yet unborn Ishmael (which means “God hears”) will be the father of a great multitude.
Hagar is overcome with joy and names the Lord El-roi, אֵלרֳאִי (“the God who sees”). She marvels, saying, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?” Hagar was seen and she saw — and lived.
She expected death but found life.
Creation has been subjected to futility against its will (see Romans 8:20). The answers are provided when the children of God are unveiled, when they are truly themselves. That is, when they (when we) become who they were “created” to be.
The animals, plants, all humanity will thank you! The cosmos will thank you!
