Advent - Romans 8:20-21

        
What will life be like in God's fully liberated and healed
world? What will be the best part of that world?

I honestly do not spend a lot of time thinking about the specifics of god's fully liberated and healed world... I do get emotional pretty much every time this passage and related ideas come up - freedom from sin and death certainly has specific consequenes for what daily life will look like. But I don't actually want to think too much about what that life will be and here's why...

It's like the "don't meet your heros" mentality... It's not that they're actually a let-down, but we build up heros in our head only to realize that they're just people too... Seems like this is a pretty common Canon event for a child in one way or another... Well let's swap out my thoughts about my childhood hero with my thoughts about Heaven... What do I reasonably know today to look forward to in the life-everlasting?

1. I will no longer be my own master - today in my heart a war rages daily... I wake up every morning acutely aware of the pieces of me that are hostile to God - they ache but they're also comfortable... I cannot wait to be fully freed from this
2. The whole earth will praise the name of the Lord and to be in community with people of common mind and faith sounds (again) - freeing.

Beyond these 2 high-level truths, which we certainly could unpack a bit more, I would uncomfortable to make any assertions about what the future kingdom will look like, but I know I look forward to it

How? How to look forward to something you can't concretely describe in physical terms? Because my God, the Truth-Teller, is the one who tells us about it... I don't have to understand everything behing the Word of God - because I trust the Person of God and therefore his word

Notes

Certainly there isn't actually a Chaiasism here...

A: 18 For I consider that the sufferings of the present time --B: are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is ----C: about to be revealed to us.o ------D: 19 For the eagerly expecting creation ------D': awaits eagerly ----C': the revelation of the sons of God. --B': 20 For the creation has been subjected to futility, A': not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, not sure about "in hope" and into 21 in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its servility to decay, into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now.