THE OUTLOOK IS GOOD - HONEST !
One subject that has occupied the collective Irish psyche lately has been the weather. Now , true to say ‘weather’ is an enduring topic here,often plugging awkward silences in conversation, but this year the talk has been rather more serious and concentrated due to the onslaught of almost two months of heavy rain during our official summer !Day after day dawned to the pit-patter sound of unseasonal precipitation, setting the nation into a downward mood spin and seeing large numbers fleeing to the nearest airports to leave our sodden isle for warmer climes ! However compared to our neighbour Britain we have suffered little,they have endured widespread flooding with thousands of lives severely disrupted - a months rain falling in less than an hour on one occasion. Elsewhere in the world weather patterns have been no less dramatic with heat waves claiming dozens of lives in central Europe.
The environmental experts tell us all these meteorological convulsions are down to ‘climate change’ accelerated by our wanton disregard of ecology in our ever-burgeoning consumer driven lifestyle. I wouldn’t take issue with the ‘experts’,and I think that view is compatible with my own ideas based on my reading of that ancient repository of wisdom, the Bible. A few years ago I was amazed to learn that several large electrical manufacturing companies employed engineers to build into their products an end date for usage,usually just beyond the guarantee period ! And scientists are increasingly convinced that our DNA has within it a programmed number of years for our allotted span ! So why not the Earth itself,perhaps it too has a specified end-date (in fact the Bible argues that it definitely does). In recent years the planet has been rocked as never before by floods…tsunamis…heat waves…earthquakes etc,. Is this the Earth groaning in its declining years,as we inevitably do ourselves with the onset of old age ? The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians at Rome seems to be making this point when he wrote - “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time“.(Romans 8:18-21)
Now admittedly Paul is using the analogy of childbirth ‘groaning’here as he anticipates not only the summation of this planet but also the creation of a new Earth,but that’s another story !
In life we go from the growing pains of childhood to the groaning pains of old age,could our home planet be going through the same aging process, and these severe weather patterns are a kind of globalised arthritic spasm ? One thing the Bible promises for sure is the creation of a new heaven and a new earth,in fact an entirely new world order for those who respond to Jesus invitation to new life -
”Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
Maybe we should be watching the erratic weather forecasts with an eye to the future, and an eye to our place in Gods scheme of things, ensuring that we have understood His eternal purposes for our lives both here and beyond this life.Jesus one time,when discussing spiritual truths with a sceptical crowd finally said -
… “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right. When the south wind blows, you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’ And it is. You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times“.(Luke 12:54-56)
We need to be fully awake to all that God may be doing,and be sure of our relationship with Him…at the end of the day nothing else really matters !
Gerard O'Shea
