Longings

Revelation 21:1-7

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
5And he who was seated on the throne said,

"Behold, I am making all things new."

Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6And he said to me,

"It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the beginning and the end. To the thirsty

(whoever wishes)

I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. "

As little girls we all wish for our knight in shining armor to come to rescue us from the danger that is in this big, scary world.

Some where along the way, we realize that the knight is never coming, and the danger is ever present.

In an earlier generation, there was a saying, "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride." If our little girl wishes would only come true then we would ride off into the sunset into the land of contentment, constant love, and no more pain or tears.

Our Knight has come.

He has conquered all for us, but we continue to dwell in the land of wishes.

In one of the older translations, of Revelation 21, it adds the phrase (whoever wishes) may come and drink from the water that is free, to us.

Right now, we live in the land of wishes, unkept promises, unfulfilled dreams and longings that are never met. They cause us pain, and tears that fall, and keep our hearts wishing for something different. It is not the same for everyone. We all carry burdens that can never be resolved, or lifted.

Wishing we were someone other than who we are, wishing we had different parents, different backgrounds, gifts, money or looks. Wishing we had not said what we said, did what we did, or not have done what we could have.

Those particular hard places that hurt every time they are thought of,

are particularly at risk.

This places us down the path of deception and denial.

We begin lieing about ourselves, and to ourselves, our situations, and others. Making ourselves, our situations and others smaller or larger than they should be.

Being completely honest about our lives is the hardest thing we do. The tighter hold that pride has on our lives, the harder it is to see reality.

Our heavenly Knight keeps the longing alive in His bride. The longing for unconditional love, (have you heard that phrase tossed around?) We can have unconditional love if we only.......But we constantly get it wrong.

The longing for a peaceful life, children who follow the Lord, husbands that are unselfish. We chase after His earthly gifts in order to find Him. He then has to increase our thirst, our longing, our desires, and our stages of discontent.

He only wants us to have eyes for Him. Not because He is a meglamanic, but,

"He has made us for Himself, and we are restless until we find our peace in Him."

Augustine, Confessions

As the branch cannot bear fruit without the vine, so we cannot do anything apart from Him. How come I stay in the land of wishes most of the time? When abundant life is waiting, and the fulfillment of that life, life eternal is mine as well.