Nature Is In Childbirth

"In this late day of creation we are troubled by pollution, and nature seems to turn against us. Will nature ever be completely liberated?  Yes. Scripture tells us it is waiting for the liberation of the sons of God.  When the number of the elect is completed, then there will be a new heaven and a new earth. St. Paul has a beautiful description of that in the eighth chapter of Romans. 'For the created universe waits with eager expectation for God's son to be revealed. It was made the victim of frustration, not by its own choice.'  Nature did not become rebellious because it willed it, but because of him who made it so--because of us.  And always there was hope, because the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God.  'Up to the present, we know, the whole created universe groans in all of its parts, as if in the pangs of childbirth.'  Just think of it.  We hardly think of nature that way.  No poet has ever sung about nature being like a woman in childbirth.  And yet here it is.  We can hardly wait.  Each sunrise, each sunset: nature is expectant.  When will men serve God and the number of the elect be complete?"