Paul finished Romans 8:17 stating that all God's children will suffer with Jesus for being his followers. In Romans 8:18-25 he puts that suffering in perspective, comparing what we are experiencing now with what we one day will experience. He includes creation in current suffering and explains that creation will have a 'then' moment, also, when its bandage to decay is broken and it is restored to its original purpose..

In the in-between time we live in hope, in the certainty that what God has promised us will become ours.