​As Nothing!

The opening line of this Sunday’s epistle is one that makes my heart take a little leap!  Paul tells us that “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”  
 
Wow!  
 
I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve had a fair share of suffering in the last few years.  From dealing with the manifold affects of a pandemic to workplace struggles to everything in between, the beginning of this second decade of the century hasn’t exactly been a breeze.  
 
There isn’t a time in history, though, that’s been immune from suffering, unless maybe you count the time before Adam and Eve made a world-shattering decision.   So, suffering is part of life for everyone, but that’s not my point.
 
The striking part is that, here, Paul is teaching us that despite how burdensome our current sufferings may seem, God’s plan is for something far greater.  Even if we feel like we’re in an abyss of sorrow, His plan for us in heaven goes to the opposite extreme - and beyond.  
 
Now, that’s encouraging!
 
Later in his passage, Paul brings in the image of a woman in labor, which fits in well with the above reflections.  I’ve never been in labor, but the analogy of creation groaning in labor pains makes sense to me.  It strikes me because a couple of people I was with were recently discussing the pains of childbirth and how their memory is soon overshadowed by the joy of a new life among us.  
 
I hadn’t realized that this poignant passage was in Romans, chapter eight, but I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise.  This chapter, which comes right in the middle of the letter, is really a treasure-house of scriptural gems.  
 
Perhaps my favorite passage in the entire Bible comes a little later in the chapter, in verses 35-39, where Paul ponders over the power and steadfastness of Christ’s love:
“What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”