What makes you eager: a trip coming up, a special reunion, a birthday celebration? Are you eager for your total transformation?

I felt a little humbled when I read Romans 8:19, The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The whole creation is eager and waiting. And for what? For humans to be revealed as children of God! Most of the time I am neither eager nor waiting. Most of the time I’m just focusing on what is on my to-do list today and if I can get it done. There’s no eagerness or waiting about it. Sometimes it’s drudgery or worry, other times confidence and pleasure. I could learn a lesson from creation about eager waiting.

Creation may not have a to-do list like I do, but creation is busy doing what it does—spouting out of the ground, lighting up the universe, spreading dew around the world. It does its duty and at the same time it is eager and waiting. I recognize this eager waiting more in my dog Aggie than I do in my own life. We left him home alone (with a neighbor to look in on him) for three days. The minute we opened the door his eager waiting for our return was expressed by his overexuberant response. I got the sense that ever since we left he was waiting eagerly for our return and his return to normal.

I’ve never forgotten the lyrics of a praise song that I learned at a conference. One phrase goes, Ain’t no rock gonna take my place, as long as I have breath, gonna praise the Lord. Ain’t no branch gonna wave its branches, as long as I have breath gonna praise the Lord. I can’t defend the grammar used in this song, but it does express a solid Biblical truth that Jesus told us in Luke 19:40. If people don’t praise Him the stones will cry out. Creation waits in eager expectation.

If creation is waiting in eager expectation, shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we be going about our everyday life with a great big sense of eagerness mixed with patient waiting? We are the ones who are going to be revealed as God’s children after all.

I decided to learn a lesson from creation and I’ve been reminded by paying more attention to creation. I’ve noticed the trees, birds, sunsets and sunrises more. I let my mind consider what they know. I don’t know how a mosquito knows that one day I will be revealed as the daughter of God, but I trust that it can’t wait until it can stop annoying people and animals by sucking out their blood. Thinking about the creation waiting in eager expectation has caused me to wait with eagerness too. It brings a lot more meaning and enjoyment to my to-do list too. Why not try learning a spiritual lesson from creation?