Romans 8:19-22
“For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”
The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome around the mid-1st century CE, is describing the hope Christians have in future redemption. He broadens this hope to include not just humanity but all of creation, linking its current state of suffering and decay to humanity's original disobedience.
What does it mean for us to live in a world that 'groans' alongside us?