I have a confession to make. I recently started listening to Christmas music again. I know, I know…it’s February! It has been seven weeks since Christmas. Forty-nine days. Not sure about you, but it feels like it has been forever. I began listening to Christmas music again when I began to feel this insistent sense of longing, longing for something more. In our Christmas post, I talked about this sense of longing. I challenged you to fill that sense of longing with the abundant life Jesus offered when he came as a baby lying in a manger.
As we move into mid-February, the snow is melting a bit revealing a brown and lifeless looking scenery. I find that this is a really tough season of the year for a lot of people, including myself. The Christmas parties are over, the Christmas cookies are gone, all of the excitement and hype of the season is done. And we’re left with an ache for something more.
What are you aching for?
I recently was reminded of a Bible verse from the book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes is thought to be written by Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. This book takes the reader along for his journey to find the meaning of life.
In chapter 3, verse 11, the Teacher writes: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
God has set eternity in the human heart. Eternity. How often am I reflecting on eternity? As I go about my day to day business, am I considering what implications my thoughts, words, and action have on eternity? When I am troubled by the chaos of this world, how often am I reflecting that this is just a moment in the grand scheme of eternity.
Eternity.
Remember how I said I started to listen to Christmas music again when that insistent ache or sense of longing for something more started up again? This was purely subconscious initially. My heart and soul were longing for the majesty and mystery of the Christmas season to fill the underlying sense of longing I was experiencing.
This is just a hypothesis, but I propose that this sense of longing is the eternity that God has set in our hearts. We are longing for something greater, something grander, something more significant than this present moment. That ache is the Holy Spirit prompting us with a longing for something bigger than what our current circumstances are.
Laura Story in her song Blessings sings, “the pain reminds this heart that this is not, this is not our home. It’s not our home.” When we call Jesus our Savior, our home rests in eternity. How can we not long for that?!
How are you coping with ache for eternity? Are you ignoring or distancing yourself from this ache? Are you riled up and anxious during these times of uncertainty so much so that the ache is now a distant whisper in your heart?
Jesus made a way for us to move beyond this current circumstance, even in our present life, to be comforted by the Holy Spirit. In this present time, we can know that God is working all things for good (Romans 8:28). He’s been working all things together for his marvelous plan. Where does that plan end? In eternity with Him.
Eventually when you breathe last breath, when you cash in your getaway card from this Earth, you will be swooped up by your Savior and be able to reflect and gaze on Him. That eternity as what fills my ache. It satisfies my longing for something more. Because I know no matter what’s going on, no matter what this present circumstance is that there’s something more coming. Let me say though that it takes conscious effort to tune in to this longing and turn my heart to fill the longing with God. It is soooo easy to attempt to fill that longing with things of this world.
These are the gentle promptings that the Holy Spirit gave me this week. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments. Share with us how you’re doing with your ache. Are you pressing into God? If not, I encourage you to open his Word and reflect on eternity. Let it seep into your heart.
You are worth more than mediocre. You are worth exceptional health!
Caitlyn J. Hanson
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