All Creation Groans (Watching for Jesus 4)

Scripture for reflection: Romans 8:18-25

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, in hope that it will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”

~ adapted from Romans 8:19-22

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TO "DO" TODAY: Take five minutes today to gaze out a window at the world: the trees, the birds, the deer, the squirrels, the dirt, the snow. This is life, this is creation. And all of it watches and waits with us.

Black Rook in Rainy Weather

On the stiff twig up there
Hunches a wet black rook
Arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain.
I do not expect a miracle
Or an accident 

To set the sight on fire
In my eye, nor seek
Any more in the desultory weather some design,
But let spotted leaves fall as they fall,
Without ceremony, or portent. 

Although, I admit, I desire,
Occasionally, some backtalk
From the mute sky, I can’t honestly complain:
A certain minor light may still
Leap incandescent 

Out of kitchen table or chair
As if a celestial burning took
Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then—
Thus hallowing an interval
Otherwise inconsequent 

By bestowing largesse, honor,
One might say love. At any rate, I now walk
Wary (for it could happen
Even in this dull, ruinous landscape); skeptical,
Yet politic; ignorant 

Of whatever angel may choose to flare
Suddenly at my elbow. I only know that a rook
Ordering its black feathers can so shine
As to seize my senses, haul
My eyelids up, and grant 

A brief respite from fear
Of total neutrality. With luck,
Trekking stubborn through this season
Of fatigue, I shall
Patch together a content 

Of sorts. Miracles occur,
If you care to call those spasmodic
Tricks of radiance miracles. The wait’s begun again,
The long wait for the angel,
For that rare, random descent. 

          ~ Sylvia Plath