If creation is full of expectancy,
that is because it is waiting
for the sons of God to be made known.
Created nature has been condemned to frustration;
not for some deliberate fault of its own,
but for the sake of him who so condemned it,
with a hope to look forward to;
namely, that nature in its turn
will be set free from the tyranny of corruption,
to share in the glorious freedom of God’s sons.
The whole of nature, as we know,
groans in a common travail all the while.
And not only do we see that,
but we ourselves do the same;
we ourselves,
although we have already begun to reap our spiritual harvest,
groan in our hearts,
waiting for that adoption
which is the ransoming of our bodies from their slavery.
It must be so,
since our salvation is founded upon the hope of something.
Romans 8:22-24 [Knox]
