"Jesus knew that our hunger for heaven - our sense of incompleteness now and our joy in what is to come - would draw us to Him. It is a famine in the making. Even for Jesus it was not glory in the moment, but the powerful hunger for the glory to come that was in the work at the cross. Early Christians put a name to that longing - 'Christ in you, the hope of glory.' As you give Him your shame and weakness today, may He set that hope of glory before you like a feast." Michael Card
My pastor put this quote in the bulletin on Sunday. It reminded me of my first year of being a dad. My son Joshua turns one in two days. There aren't words to describe this first year. I am literally speechless when it comes to expressing the fun and joy I have experienced. Little things like learning how to parent with my wife, singing Joshua to sleep, and bumping our giggling heads together accumulate into bundles of joy. But even in those moments of the purest joy I have ever experienced I feel a longing for eternity. I watch Joshua learn to walk and think I am really going to miss him crawling around. I remember watching him learn to crawl and thinking how much I was going to miss him lying on his back and playing with us. As wonderful and inexpressible as the joy is I realize it is temporal. Earth's most satisfying joys still leave me with an ache for heaven.
We are pilgrims here. This isn't home. I rest today knowing that the joys I am blessed with here point to a pure and eternal joy in the presence of the Almighty. I long to be with him and know the joy without the ache.
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