Wildflowers at Big Sandy Lake, Wind River Range, Wyoming

I was reading a book the other day that had little to do with the wilderness, but one of the authors took a quick side tangent that I found interesting.  I’ll be spending the next several weeks discussing the quote, building on it week to week.

“Romans 8:22 says that “creation groans for the revealing of the sons and daughters of God.” Nature longs to manifest the Kingdom [of God].  The earth groans for this, wanting to be healed.” (DeCenso, 2009)

Along the Lakeshore Trail, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

When the sons and daughters of God are revealed – when the presence and Kingdom of God is manifested in us and through us, when we meet with God – something happens in the natural world as a consequence.  I can’t explain or describe it, but something happens between heaven and earth when we, as the children of God, encounter God and His power and presence.

This is why creation longs for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed – it longs for the connection, the revelation, the transformation that happens to it when we are revealed.

This is why the author states that nature longs to manifest the Kingdom.  It is longing for the manifestation of the children of God so it, too, can manifest God’s Kingdom on earth.

Teton Shelf Trail, Jedediah Smith Wilderness, Wyoming

In the Lord’s Prayer, there is a line that has become a favorite of mine over the past many years.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

I have written many times about how God’s glory covers the earth; how the wilderness and natural world declares His greatness and majesty.  But when God’s Kingdom is revealed, and God’s will is done here on earth as in heaven, something shifts in the natural world.

Atop UN12812 near Independence Pass, Colorado

The glory becomes stronger, the majesty more majestic, the praise from creation becomes louder and more profound (Psalm 66:4).

Snowfields on Ptarmigan Ridge near Mt. Baker, Washington

Entering the wilderness as an ordinary person, we can revel in the majesty and glory God has placed there.  But as sons and daughters of God, we can revel in far more, because as the presence and power of God is revealed in and through us, nature – the very creation of God – can respond, its groaning subdued as it joins in the revealing of God’s Kingdom on earth; on earth as it is in heaven.

More Related Posts:

God Saw that it was Good Water Longs to be Walked On Judgement is Not the Answer to Creation’s Groans May the Lord Take Joy in All He Has Made God Reveals Himself through His Creation Changed, not Conformed