He Longs for You - C4

Ephesians 1:4-5 “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.” God longs for each of us to come home. We are His adopted kids, but we’re not home yet. He has made all the sacrifices, covered us with His blood, and is building a magnificent home for us in His Kingdom. Bubbling over with His excitement and joy over our upcoming arrival, God stands with longing in His eyes, waiting for the right moment. I know what it is to long. With each of my babies, I longed. It was a very long wait. With my first, I longed for a child to hold. I longed to be chosen. I longed for my empty arms to be filled, for him to arrive safely, and for his first mommy to let go so I could hold him closer, embrace him as fully mine. To see his smile, full of his first mommy’s twinkle, greet me in the morning when I entered his room. To hear his laughter and embrace him as the son of my right hand. With my second child, the longing before she came was short. We had barely heard of her existence before she had arrived. Yet, I longed for her to recognize how very priceless she is. The little pearl we would sell everything to keep. The longing to connect her to our hearts lasted 10 years. For 10 years we longed to hear her say “I love you” without being prompted. We waited 10 years for her to need to hug us, for her to need to be held, for her to investigate relationship, and choose it as her own desire. How often are You longing to hear “I love you”? Do You wish we would seek relationship with You without strings attached? Do You long for the day when we will run into Your arms and celebrate You with true understanding of who You are? My third child was the greatest longing prior to arrival. We longed as an entire family to welcome her home. We prayed for an entire year before she came. My husband and I saw our longing mirrored in the eyes of our other children. She needed us in order to come home. There were days when we heard of disasters in her area of the world; we knew she was there. We longed to protect her. There were medical needs to meet. We longed to provide for her, before it was too late. Her emotional needs were desperate. She had just lost her first mommy months before. We longed to comfort her, to teach her that God is enough to fill those empty places. She was uneducated and would remain so until she came home. We longed to give her knowledge and later wisdom to embrace her own calling. When she came home, it was months before she could speak our language, run and play with healthy energy, stop crying through the night for all those she had lost. We longed to erase what brought her so much pain. We longed to give her a childhood, memories that could be shared with us, new joy. Do You long for us that way? Do You wait to bring us health, to give us a world where there is no pain, to teach us all You know, to teach us Your language so we can share Your heart? I know You long for relationship, deep and constant, tried and true. With my youngest, I longed to give him a safe entry into the world. The heroin had placed so much of his little prenatal life in danger, and there was nothing I could do to protect him. I longed to share Jesus with his first mommy. I longed to take away the damage done long before I knew he existed. To renew what had been stolen. To raise him to be a man of courage, a light on a hill for Jesus. Do You sometimes wish You could interrupt our world and save us from the danger we find, even place ourselves in? Do You want at times to reach down and remove us from our pain? Yet, wisely, You leave us where we are so we can finish maturing into Your likeness. God longs for us. He can’t wait for us to come home. He can’t wait to give us health and dry our tears. To inspire our laughter, proclaim our pricelessness, create our joy, and empower our courage. He can’t wait to show us how very chosen we are and all that it took to bring us to Himself. He is a parent waiting for the culmination of all of His plans. He longs for us. He longs for us.