As Christians we believe that we are born to live, to die and then to be born again to live eternally with God. Our end is not life on earth but life with God forever. But we are not there yet and we will not get there until we die in this life; not die to this life but die in this life. We still have to live this life before we can live the life to come. Yet, as we live this life as fully and as faithfully as we can, there is still something missing. As Paul says in Romans, we groan for something more.
Thus, in that sense, we are like a mother in labor. The life to come is still within us and wants to be born as soon as possible. Paul himself in another place talks about wanting to be with God in eternity right then and there but also knows that he still has a mission to fulfill in this life. He is not yet done with what has to be done even as he aches to be done with this life and be with God forever.
Perhaps that is why, even when we are most satisfied with life as it is, when we seem fully alive, we still have this inkling that there is more, that something is missing. There is a longing for something more, a holy longing as it has been called. That longing will not be satisfied until eternity. We know that. Yet we cannot help but groan from within for it to be now.
This is good. If life did not get any better than this, what would we have to look forward to? Or as Paul says, where would our hope be? If there is nothing to hope for, if this life is as good as it gets, what a pity! But we do have hope and we live with that hope and we groan patiently within for it to be fulfilled. No, we do not dwell on it and the labor pains are not constant. But every once in a while we feel them if only as a reminder that the best is yet to come, whatever that best will be like.
On the other hand, when life is not so good, when the pain of this life is real, whatever the pain, whatever the form of suffering we are in, this hope for life without pain is what helps us through the moment, however long that moment may be. We certainly are experiencing some of that these days, what with the virus and the restrictions on our life style and all the rest. We are longing for something better now, in this life, not just in the life to come. As we struggle through life now, the life to come is put on hold.
That’s the way it is in this life. When life is good, we still long for something more and better. When life is not so good, we long for something more and better. We are never truly satisfied and will never be until we finally live that new and better life with God in eternity. Until then we will continue to groan from within.
And that is as it should be, is it not? That is not to say we always are greedy for something more and better. Rather it is to say that as we live out this life, inwardly groaning for the life to come, we still know that we can always do better, be better. There will always be something missing even if we cannot put our finger on just what that something is. In a real way we can never be satisfied with what is. We have to look for ways to be better, groaning our way as we do.
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