Groaning

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now (Romans 8:22)

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26)

For we know

that the whole creation

groaneth and travaileth

in pain together

until now

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities

for we know not what we should pray for

as we ought

but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us

with groaning 

which cannot be uttered

When I read these power filled snippets of scripture, I feel off the hook for my lack of words in prayer: the Spirit hears me, knows me, and my lack of verbiage does not block His understanding of how I am feeling. 

Last night, my son and I were discussing videos of children we have both seen separate from one another, in which the child did not want an injection, and was screaming and crying, and sometimes sobbing plaintively to not be subjected. You know, dear reader, of what I speak. When my son brought up these videos, I reacted immediately. Truth be told, I have only seen one such video, and I never ever wanted to speak of it, see anymore like it, or share it with another soul. I can replay it in my memory, and it appals my spirit to think on it, and so I haven't, until last night.

I didn't have words. I couldn't pray. I mumbled "I don't know what to pray Lord", and my son mentioned scripture and the groaning of our spirit. I felt infirm, as though I was sick of soul and without remedy, dear one, just considering what I have seen and what I have not been able to do, to say, to stop the heinous crimes on the innocent and powerless. How can I stand against parents, hundreds and thousands of parents and the injectors, to keep them from harming their own children? 

The whole of creation is groaning and travailing, and that is a massive concept that is hard to take hold of, and yet all that is came from God's hand, and all that is, is an echo of Who He is, if that makes sense to you? It should also make sense to all of us, that if a child is screaming, crying, sobbing plaintively, and does not have words to stop an onslaught, that God hears their groans of soul injury, and it grieves Him to see and hear them being maltreated and misused by the adults that ought to treat them as precious gifts from their Maker. 

If we are deaf and blind to the injury and insult of other, we have lost our own compassion capacity as human beings created in the image of God. To force another against their will is a sin, an abhorrent and despicable sin, and this is what I witnessed, what we have watched from a distance, disabled as we are to stop the carnage.

... the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us 

I need this. I want this. I feel this is what has happened as of late. I am not weeping daily as I once was. I am observational, and prayerfully hopeful, sometimes without words, because God sees and knows all, and He loves each of His creatures. He made us and knows our inner workings. When I am grieved, He feels with me, and when I cannot utter, my groaning is sufficient, even when my inadequacy is apparent to me. He is mighty to save, mighty to heal, mighty to take our brokenness and piece us back together again, and isn't that how God ought to be? if He weren't, then He wouldn't be Almighty!

Thankfully the Bible leaves no stone unturned in the area of wisdom. We can always go there for a hit of life altering, soul soothing truth, even when the reality we are exposed to in this life is almost too painful to contemplate, we are assured: 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)

AMEN