“The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.” Romans 8:21 The J.B Phillips paraphrase puts it this way,  “In the end, the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share of that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!”. 

Footsteps #343 “Change and decay” is the stuff of life on this earth. Anyone older than 50 is well aware of that fact. Once I had perfect eyesight, but now I have glasses. Once I used to run long distances; now I have to force myself to go walking. Once I had lots of brown wavy hair; now I am happy to have a little snow-white hair. And so it goes. Change and decay are the lot of life. 

Solomon recognised that fact. In the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, he writes, “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore” (Eccl. 12:1. NLT). 

It seems like just yesterday that I could hardly wait for my next birthday. But times have changed. As the wise man puts it, peoples “grinders [teeth] cease because they are few,” their “windows [eyes] are dimmed,” “and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home…and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit [or breath] returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher: all is vanity” (Eccl. 12:2-8, NRSV). Change and decay are the lot of life. 

Paul tells us that it affects the “whole of created life”. One doesn’t have to be especially wise to see that something is wrong with our planet. Earthquakes, floods, regular Hurricanes and Tornadoes, tsunamis, forest fires, drought, pestilence pandemics, and disease strike everywhere, environmental and ecological disasters, plus the threat of economic and social turmoil. We live in a world in which the weeds come up by themselves. The natural world trembles on the verge of collapse. Change and decay are the order of life. 

It is that very order that Paul says will itself come to an end. “In the end, the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in the magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!” 

A new day is approaching in which change and decay will vanish forever. Peter helps us grasp that time when he writes that, “We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”