Squeaky Wheels & the Groaning of Time

Ain't technology grand?

Back in 2001 I bought my first computer, an Apple iMac G3 that had a grand total of 13 Gigs of memory and two -- gasp -- yes, two USB ports on it. It was totally awesome! The computer I was using before had barely enough power to run a crock pot and the new machine was so amazing in comparison that I think I did backflips for three months. However, as we all come to find out, new technology is only new from the time you slide the credit card to the time you open the box. After you first turn it on... it's practically obsolete. Each month, technology seems to best its best efforts, from computers to websites to cell phones. My cell phone was purchased in late 2005 -- brand new -- and I was told just recently that it is ancient. Yes, from new to ancient in less than three years. Just today at the church I was confronted with the fact that our auditorium's LCD projectors (which I consider to be totally cool machines) are about to depart to that final microchip destination in the sky, circuit heaven. They are corroding on the inside and their effectiveness is gradually fading away.

Much like all we see around us. Much like you and I.

Yesterday I was bemoaning the effects of time. My grandfather is 83 years young and having some concerning health problems. It seems like only yesterday that I was riding with him on his riding lawnmower, chopping down blades of grass on one of the various lots he owned. Now, he cannot even sit on his mower. His grandsons do most of his yardwork. Time has caught up to him. Just as it will to you and I. But that's our reality here on planet earth. We must live with it, even if we don't like it. Things are breaking down, not getting better. And they will get much worse. Saint Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:20-22, "the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now."

All of creation is suffering as a result of mankind's fall way back in the Garden of Eden. God put a curse upon both man and ground and things have been getting progressively worse. Paul wrote that creation groans in pain like a woman giving birth. It longs for redemption just as you and I long for redemptiion. We long for time to cease and our bodies to rest. We long for renewal of our weary bodies but we know that we will not have such on this side of the eternal line. The planet is breaking down just like I am -- just like our electronic devices are. No, not even computers and LCD projectors are immune to the curse, it seems.

But unlike they, we will be redeemed. Because Jesus paid the debt of our fallenness and became accursed for us. And through faith in Him we will have redemption of both spirit and body. Yes, our bodies will be redeemed (read 1 Corinthians 15 all the way through). Death never had final say over the body. God always did. And our bodies will be raised -- from ash, bone or dust -- and we will be made like new. To walk forever without squeaky wheels and whining joints on streets of gold.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!