For what (or Whom) am I yearning?

*This was written in June of this year, the day after I returned from taking the youth group here in La Grange to camp.

Camp is always a great time. For my 9th consecutive year, it was good to get out of the world in which I am currently caught up and have the opportunity to grow closer to God and renew my relationship with His Son. It is also a fun time to rekindle acquaintances with brethren I do not get to see all year round. However, although camp was wonderful, I must admit that it is good to be back home too. Especially as I get older there just doesn't seem be a bed quite like the one I inhabit each night in the comfort of my own home.

Speaking of home, while at camp this past week, something dawned on me and it hit me like the proverbial "ton of bricks." I missed my family. I missed being around them. I missed my wife's sweet and beautiful smile. I missed laughing with her. I missed hugging her. I missed telling her that I love her. I even missed her exasperated "sigh" when I often need her to do something for me. I missed my kids' laughter. I missed their tender little voices that tell me they love me. It was an intense longing and yearning. It was a deep pining. It was a craving, a hunger, a genuine desire to be with and to hold those who mean more to me than anything else in this present day world. As I sat there on this particular evening, pondering this, and became teary-eyed, I realized that it is my relationship with them that allows for this. As each day passes, I grow closer and closer to these ones who are so dear to me. At least I strive to anyway. If not for my relationship with them, my desire to be with them at that particular moment would not have been so intense. Currently my wife and kids are in Wisconsin visiting family and will not be back until the latter part of June. There is little doubt that the length of my absence from them contributed greatly to my intense feelings that particular evening.

So as this was going through my mind, it made me think how our relationship with Jesus should be similar. If we are not pining to one day come home and be with Jesus, then perhaps our relationship with Him (and with this world) is worth re-evaluating. As for me, I pray (and certainly ask for your prayers) that as I personally live my life on this temporary earth, like the Apostle Paul demonstrated in Philippians 1:23, I will forever long and yearn to one day be with Christ. I hope that I will never cease to look forward in happy anticipation to one day joining Him in glory, always keeping my eyes fixed on Him (Hebrews 12:1-2) with a deep hunger and sense of craving. I pray that I never lose sight of what awaits me in that place Jesus has gone to prepare for me (John 14:1-6) as I strive to enjoy life in His Kingdom (Matthew 5-7) and complete the beautiful journey and race set before me today (I Corinthians 9:21-24).

The truth of the matter is that the closer we grow to Christ and the more we get to know Him, the greater our desire will be in spending an eternity with Him. The more familiar we grow to His ways, the more intense our hunger will be to experience them for an eternity. Think about it. We are told that Jesus' blood cleanses our sins when we walk in the light with Him (I John 1:7).

Thank God for the realization that this world is not my home! I do not know all of the details about how an eternity with God will be apart from this world, the only home we have ever known. Who does? In fact, I am quite convinced that it is not intended for us to know every detail about Heaven. But I do know enough, from what the Bible reveals to us about that grand abode as a place of rest and refuge from earthly hardship (Hebrews 4:1-10), to know that I want to be there one day. May my service in His kingdom forever be a source of remembrance to me, that as I certainly look forward to being reunited with my family when they return home from Wisconsin, I undoubtedly have something far more glorious and exciting for which to look forward in one day being united with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for an eternity.