Longing for home

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. (Matthew 13:13-14)

Longing for Home

Were I a film maker, I would freeze this moment. I’d fix the camera on Jesus’ face as he stands on the rocky beach, his face panning the crowd.

I’d let it linger on his face, then close in on his eyes, letting the mystery he is unfold in our hearts until the compassion in his soul brings tears to our eyes.

Feeling this, we’d know the meaning of that indefinable longing that rises unexpected within us. It comes in moments when beauty or grace or love or even suffering awakens this yearning, an unquenchable craving for something we cannot quite name, except maybe … home.

Behind every desire lies this one, this pining for a Love that is more than love, a Beauty that is more than beauty, a Healing that is final because it is the answer to that longing we have carried all our lives.

Seeing Jesus’ eyes, I know that for which every soul aches. We yearn to feel whatever is in him in us, to know his soul within our own … at that unreachable place which is the source of our longing.

We crave unbroken oneness with this Love. Only this satisfies our souls. This is the home for which our hungry hearts hunt in every moment and circumstance whether we recognize it or not.

Just I so, I stand beside him for a while, watching as he surveys the crowd, waiting for the moment that the Love in him awakens that Love within my own needy soul.

The moment may not come right away. I may need to wait. The wait may be long, but it will come … and carry me home.

Pr. David L Miller