This beautiful, cursed world

It’s nice to get a chance, in the summer, to get out of the city once in a while to enjoy the beauty of nature. Last week my family and I got to spend a few days upstate in a cottage owned by some friends. The cabin sits on the shores of a picturesque lake near the foothills of the Adirondack mountains. It was really amazing.

One morning I went out for a walk to enjoy the beautiful scenery and a thought hit me ... According to Genesis 3, the world we live in is under God’s curse because of human sin. God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you.” Romans 8 says that the world of nature “was subjected to futility” and is in “bondage to decay”. It says that, ever since the fall of human beings, “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth.” As I was walking along, awed by the beauty of all I was seeing this is what occurred to me: If a world that is under God’s curse is still as lovely as the one we live in, what will it be like when the curse is finally gone? If a world that has been decaying and groaning for thousands of years is still so awesome that just looking at it makes me want to sing, what will it be like when Christ returns and the new heaven and the new earth appear?

I drew three rough conclusions as I walked along. 1) God is an amazing creator. All the effects of our sin still cannot hide the magnificence of the world he first made. 2) God is a gracious ruler. How merciful of him to have allowed so much beauty to remain in the world, even after our sin provoked his curse. 3) When Christ comes back it is going to be great! As I looked at the scenery around me, I remembered that our whole planet is not as beautiful as an Adirondack lake. There are hungry people who face Saharan droughts. There are industrial wastelands where animals die. There are lots and lots of ugly, hurting places in this world. But when Christ returns all will be new. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain anymore ...” Seated on his throne right now, Jesus says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:4-5)

I ended my reverie by praising God for his amazing work in the first creation and for his gracious work in the new creation. I also felt moved to pray for the work of the gospel, through which people of every nation are being invited to participate in the world to come.