We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; ²³ and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. ²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷ And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:22-27 

“If the Redemption of Man is the beginning of nature’s redemption as a whole, must we then conclude after all that Man is the most important thing in nature? If I had to answer ‘Yes’ to this question I should not be embarrassed. Supposing Man to be the only rational animal in the universe, then his small size and the small size of the globe he inhabits would not make it ridiculous to regard him as the hero of the cosmic drama: Jack after all is the smallest character in ‘Jack the Giant Killer’. Nor do I think it in the least improbable that Man is in fact the only rational creature in this spatio-temporal Nature. That is just the sort of lonely pre-eminence – just the disproportion between picture and frame – which all that I know of Nature’s ‘selectiveness’ would lead me to anticipate. Let Man be only one among a myriad of rational species, and let him be the only one that has fallen. Because he has fallen, for him God does the great deed; just as in the parable it is the one lost sheep for whom the shepherd hunts. Let Man’s pre-eminence or solitude be one not of superiority but of misery and evil; then all the more, Man will be the very species into which Mercy will descend.” (Embracing Glory; Miracles, The Grand Miracle, C.S.Lewis – from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis) 

Because we are a fallen humanity, G-d has decided to redeem, not only humanity, but all of creation – but is not planning to restore creation to a status quo. As C.S. Lewis would go on to say, “Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been, more glorious than any unfallen race is now.” And in redeeming humanity, then the entire creation will be redeemed to something more glorious than it is now. This is why we must care for creation now – because we are not to be taken out or off of this earth, this earth is to be redeemed. As such, we are called to care for what G-d has created, and will redeem, beyond our wildest imagination.

Pastor Dave