Author John Eldredge's subtitle "Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of" describes the contents of the whole book in one sentence. (John Eldredge Website Ransomed Heart.)
"We long for life and we are not sure where to find it." -John Eldredge.
This book opened my mind to new thoughts about our desires and why we have them and then begins to direct the reason for those desires and how they fit in with Heaven and knowing God. I like to believe many of his thoughts because many of them are thoughts I have had myself.
Remember the saying, "I'm trying to find myself!"? Seems that I heard it a lot in the 70's and 80's. Many times I heard it come from women who were venturing out to escape the confinements of house and home. They were discontented and went out in pursuit of all that was important to themselves. Now, thirty some years down the road we see a lot of business women who are successful in a world that was mostly for men.
I've seen women way up in those big ol' dirty, dusty, road construction monsters! Women who normally love to be clean! I've wondered why in the world they want to do work that has to be hard on the fingernails! I just hate it when I work in my garden and then all my fingernails break off.
Who is giving Momma cuddles to the little ones that are left at home or in a daycare? Most likely some will say that I am WAYYYY behind the times when I say that I still believe Mom is the one that was given the lions share of "womens intuition" when it comes to children and knowing how to meet their never-ending needs, especially those emotional needs.
Men have moved quite valiantly into the vacant kitchens and nurseries that women have left behind and have done a great job! Even still, I still think there is so much more good women can accomplish in this world when they choose to be there for their children.
I want to know this, now after the years have past, and those women are totally honest, do they feel that the desires they were looking to fill were filled? Or do they look back and desire what they could have had with their children?
What are the desires we have in our hearts now? Desires lead us down roads that after years have past make us question just what we were thinking when we did them. Whatever places/things these desires led us to do, good or bad, we can't redo the past. It's gone, it's over.
We think we are doing what we want to do, but only God knows what we want. He made us the way we are. He created us with a free will. Free to do what we want,even to know Him. This is why we were created in the first place and this is the desire that we have tried to fill with relationships, things, excitment, alcohol, money, positions, pets, shopping, busyness, etc, etc, and tired etc. I have heard, there is a spot in our heart that is empty and can only be filled by God.
John Eldredge wrote that as we recall pleasant times/events/places in our lives we remember how we hated for that time to come to an end. John Eldredge suggests that these are glimpses of Heaven.
Heaven. What do you think of when you think about Heaven? Halo's? Clouds? Harps? Worshipping God? (Worship=church.) These types of thoughts of Heaven leave us longing for more. When we think of something being heavenly, we don't think church! We think heavenly to be -----beautiful, many times beyond description!
A warm summer evening walk in a deep-green forest with softly chirping birds and a view that just won't quit!
A sleeping baby.
A caress from our lover.
If you prefer a LOUD perfectly running snowmachine! (Sweet!!!! ---as the guys would say.)
These are glimpses into Heaven. The feeling that you get along with memories like these are feelings we will have in Heaven. This is what God wants for us and He longs to share them with us... like it was in the Garden of Eden before evil worked its' chaos then when sin had run it's course a division grew between Adam, Eve and God.
Someday, the division of Death and sin will be destroyed.
Today I saw the effects of what this division brought into the world so long ago. Death. My sweet, cute, huggable, loveable, freshly washed and clean, fluffy little dog Chewy, got a hold of my granddaughter Ashlee's gerbil Harry (sniff, sniff) and ---killed him.
I watched the effect Death had on little hearts while she sprawled on the bed and cried for Harry who would never come back again. She would not be consoled with the promise of Mom and Dad getting her another gerbil that she could even name Harry again if she wanted to. I thought of Heaven and how we won't ever have to taste Death anymore and I longed for it.
Evil, Death and Hell exist. Heaven is where God is and exists. Mankind and God will live together in harmony again, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. That will be Heaven and I long for it. It is a desire of my heart to live in a place God is and never see Death again. It is a desire of my heart and if you don't realise it yet, it is a desire of yours too. God gave us that desire, Satan decieves us into thinking that there is no such place as Heaven.
Think about that time that you didn't want to end...
1 comment:
Good post, I'm going to come back and read it again when it's not so late for me. Poor Ashlee, it's hard to see someone you love whose heart has been broken, no matter how old they are! Have you read "Captivating" by John & Staci Eldridge? It has been really good, I'm about half way through it. It's about women, the way his book "Wild At Heart" was written for and about men. It explains the desires that God created within the soul of a woman and how HE longs to be the ONE who fulfills those needs within us. It's been rally enlightening!
Connie
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