What makes Thanksgiving more than just another chilly Thursday? There is a movie called “Bruce Almighty” where Jim Carey’s character is endowed with all of God’s power for a few days (and only for a few blocks in Buffalo, NY). The movie is irreverent in places, but so are we. By the end of the movie Bruce is transformed from irreverent to illuminate. But on the bonus features of the DVD there are deleted scenes and one of which I wish had not be deleted from the movie. Bruce gets to view suffering in the world from God’s perspective and in one case in particular the person comes out on the other side of suffering with a beautiful life. God tells Bruce that to paint a portrait that beautiful, you have to use dark colors sometimes.
In reading the creation account in Genesis, I realized that God created the night by creating light. He also created other things such as “sea monsters” as they are called in the ancient text. All that He created, even the darkness, was called “very good.” But sin entered the world and change us and creation. The Hebrew word for “sea monster” would be used in later texts to indicate evil and even Satan. Just as Satan was once an angel, the “sea monsters” that were originally supposed to worship God now represent rebellion. All of creation was affected including plant and animal life. This is not what was intended by the original, but it happened and here we are. We now have suffering and death. We have pain and strife. Humans were created to be individuals with unique personalities, but sin brought contention to those differences. Thus, we struggle with one another.
But then I turned to Romans 8 and discovered what Paul wrote. He does not compare our present sufferings to the glory that is to be revealed in us who trust Christ. In a few verses, he recaps how creation itself groans to be set free from its fallen state. Its freedom will come when all of God’s children are revealed. Like creation, we also groan for our redemption. We also discover that God, His Spirit, groans for us when we don’t know how to pray in this fallen world. Creation groans, we groan, and God groans with us for the glory that is to be revealed. Why is it this way? Hope. Since all of creation is connected, a major point of Genesis 1, when humans fell in sin we brought creation with us. God will now redeem us through Christ and with that He redeems creation. This hope is found in Christ and by its very nature hope is centered on something we can’t always see. Thank God that our hope is supported by the groans and prayers of the Spirit Himself.
It is hard to understand many times as we watch the suffering around us, as we watch death creep into our families and culture. But we are not groaning by ourselves or to ourselves. We have a God that will work all of these things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. If we trust Him, Paul tells us that we are already called, justified, and glorified. If we trust and surrender to Christ, then nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. No suffering, death, life, good or evil can separate us from Him. In all these things we actually become overwhelming conquerors. We may suffer and have setbacks. We may face even death. Life may be hard and our world may seem confusing. But none of that will separate us from the Love of Christ if we trust Him. That is what makes Thanksgiving more than another chilly Thursday. The early settlers of this country faced more struggles than we can fathom. But they celebrated and were thankful anyway. We can be like them and celebrate the creation that was once “very good” and hope in the glory that surpasses our present sufferings. We can even be thankful for the beautiful portrait God is creating, even if it has some dark colors, as He works all things for the good of those who love Him. As we groan, we are thankful for the hope that is in Christ.
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