Moving day
Posted by Adam Desmond on March 4, 2010
Last weekend we helped a friend move, and her Dad and brother were helping as well. Another family with a teenage daughter was helping also, so this made me think about Grace, and what it’ll be like when she moves out to go to college (Grace vehemently denies that this will happen…she insists that she’ll be living with us until she gets married). I really had a hard time thinking about that. It’s difficult to put into words what that felt like. I’m also dieting right now, which means I’m hungry all the time. Especially for Whataburger. There’s a specific hunger inside of me that only a Whataburger will satisfy. The feelings are very similar. An empty ache inside of me, a longing for something that brings me such joy. A yearning for my daughter.
As I was thinking about this, God interjected, “That’s how I feel for you.”
I had never considered this. God misses me terribly. There is a yearning inside of Him, a yearning that can only be satisfied by me.
I can satisfy that longing in Him when I come to Him, spend time with Him, listen to Him, talk with Him. But only partially.
This yearning will only be completely satisfied when I stand in His presence. When my life is over, and my eternal life begins, God will welcome me home, and we will spend all eternity together. I’ll feel his warm embrace, and he’ll crush me in His arms. Our souls will embrace and our joy will be made complete.
But until then, there will always be that yearning. And I’m learning to embrace it. That yearning tells me that this world is not my home. Just as when Grace is away at college, I hope it always feels temporary for her. That coming home is always a joyful homecoming.
So that’s how I feel. A stranger in a strange land. But I also catch glimpses of my Father’s heart every once in a while. They remind me of the coming joy, though tempered with longing, kind of like smelling that Whataburger, but not being able to eat it. Yet.
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