Now we’ve acknowledged that most of us as followers of Jesus desire to feel God – whether that means literally feeling Him physically, being fully aware to His presence and all that He’s doing, or being emotionally moved by His love and reality. It varies from person to person, but we all want it in some way. And often times, when we don’t get it, our faith suffers. You and I both know it. But why do we long for this so desperately?
Because we’re strangers.
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
2 Corinthians 5:1
Every camping trip I’ve ever been on, I’ve enjoyed, but I’ve also longed for home. I know that there is something fun and exciting about being away from home for a while. Building fires with sticks and wood shavings, eating hot dogs and pancakes with leaves mixed in the middle, being surrounded by animals that you don’t find in your front yard, listening to nothing but the crackling of twigs, the whistling and chirping of birds and other creatures, and sleeping in a hammock – or a tent, in an unfamiliar place. But sooner or later, I want to go home.
I start to miss being carelessly tucked away in the comfort of my own bed, in the safety of where I belong, and with the people that I love the most, and who know and love me the best. At home, I’m not a stranger.
Earth is not where we belong. Earth is our tent, and we are all on one extremely long, luxurious, less comfortable camping trip. And one day, we will go Home, where Abba is. Home to heaven where we are meant to live with our Father, our Lord and Savior for an eternal lifetime.
However, it’s not our time to go yet, and unfortunately, we’ve already started feeling homesick.
“For in this tent we grown, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”
2 Corinthians 5:2-4
We don’t feel right, here on earth. Now that we know Who we belong to and where we belong, our hearts are heavy and burdened, aching to go to Him and the home He’s prepared for us. We feel homesick and incomplete, and we know why the holes in our souls can’t be fully mended quite yet:
We have not yet arrived at the Promised Land.
And God Himself created us with this hole in our soul, the one that only He can fill, so that we would know to Whom and where we are meant for.
“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
2 Corinthians 5:5
We are strangers here on earth, and we want to go home to our Creator. And since we know we can’t yet, we hunger for as much of Him as we can get, to feel as much of Him as we can feel.
I genuinely believe this to be the reason we so desire to “feel” God in the ways that we do, but we must hold on to hope. We will be here until He calls us home.
