Driving home from walking a client's dog this morning I was thinking about how fall-like the temperature is for August. The sky was so clear and the colors of the trees so vibrant. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year and I literally count the days to it's arrival. As I was driving and meditating over my love affair with the outdoors, 1 Corinthians 2:9 came to my mind:
"Things which the eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him."
I conjunction with a new painting I have been mulling over Romans 8, particularly verse 22:
"For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now."
I usually think of Jesus' words about mansions when I think of the Corinthians verses, but today these and the Romans verse remind me of a new heaven and a new earth spoken of by Peter and Isaiah.
I am stunned by the reality that as beautiful as the creation is, as wonderful as all that we can see is, there will be a time when God recreates the whole thing in a way that we can never even imagine. And it is true, because I cannot imagine a day more beautiful than this morning and sights more amazing than the Canadian Rockies or the Grand Canyon. Yet the Romans verse reminds me that even in all it's glory, we still see the corruption, the groaning of the created underneath the beauty. I suppose those perfect glimpses as wondrous and momentary a they are may be God's gift of a small thumbnail sketch of what is to come.
