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

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:27-30

“We must distinguish two things which might both possibly be called ‘nearness to God’. One is likeness to God. God has impressed some sort of likeness to Himself, I suppose, in all He has made. Space and time, in their own fashion, mirror His greatness; all life, His fecundity; animal life, His activity. Man has a more important likeness than these by being rational. Secondly, there is what we may call nearness of approach. If this is what we mean, the states in which a man is ‘nearest’ to God are those in which he is most surely and swiftly approaching his final union with God. And as soon as we distinguish nearness-by-likeness and nearness-of-approach, we see that they do not necessarily coincide. 

Perhaps an analogy may help. Let us suppose that we are doing a mountain walk to the village which is our home. At mid-day we come to the top of a cliff where we are, in space, very near it because it is just below us. We could drop a stone into it. But as we are no crags-men, we can’t get down. We must go a long way round; five miles, maybe. At many points during that detour we shall, statically, be far further from the village than we were when we sat above the cliff. But only statically. In terms of progress, we shall be far ‘nearer’ our baths and teas. At the cliff’s top we are near the village, but however long we sit there we shall never be any nearer to our bath and our tea. What is near Him by likeness is never, by that fact alone, going to be any nearer. But nearness of approach is, by definition, increasing nearness. Hence, our imitation of God in this life – that is, our willed imitation as distinct from any of the likenesses which He has impressed upon our natures or states – must be an imitation of God incarnate; our model is Jesus.” (Getting Closer to God, The Four Loves, C.S.Lewis – from Preparing For Easter; Fifty Devotional Readings from C.S. Lewis)

We are inherently near to G-d because we have been made in G-d’s image. As such, we are people of G-d. But to be nearer to G-d in practice requires a life where we approach a likeness of Christ in the workshop, in the classroom, in the streets, and in the family dwelling. We must seek the “Divine life operating under human conditions”, as C.S. Lewis states – which is a daily increasing toward the likeness of Christ.

Pastor Dave