Friday's Faith - Hope Amidst Groaning

May Your unfailing Love rest on us, O LORD,

even as we put our Hope In You.

~Psalm 33:22 NIV

Friday's Faith

Hope Amidst Groaning

Hope? Amidst Groaning? How do these two concepts fit together at all? 

How can we "hope" and yet "groan"?

Who of us Child-Loss Grievers "hope" to see our child again, nevertheless we "groan" all the while? I would hazard to guess, 100% of us! 

Hopeful Groaning feels like an oxymoron doesn't it? 

How can the two fit together? Shouldn't we be "hopeful" and "joyful" at the same time? That certainly seems to be the American way! 

And yet, we must admit, our hearts are still broken... even as we hope! Is there any hope for such a grieving parent?

How merciful God is to us to have had the apostle Paul explain how these two concepts do fit together in God's own Holy Word! Read on and see what you think...

Paul says in Romans 8 (yes, the same chapter that concludes by reminding us that absolutely nothing can separate us from the Love of God!) that everybody, and everything, in fact the "whole creation," groans inwardly until we see God's full redemption of our bodies...

Read this passage of Scripture, ponder it, question it, compare it to your situation, and let me know what you think...

Romans 8:18-27, New International Version:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. 

But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but 

the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 

And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

What about you? Do you struggle with the continual sorrowful groaning over your child who is no longer here, even as you hold onto your hope for seeing your child again in Heaven?