Longings. We all have them.
Some of our longings are physical, like food and water or material comforts. Some can be emotional, like love or belonging. Some can be spiritual, like purpose and meaning and significance.
Longings fulfilled can be very satisfying. There’s even a proverb that says so:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
When you look at the traditional manger scene or nativity, you will almost always see three wise men bearing three gifts. Why are they there? What brought the wise men to see Jesus?
Longing.
And while it seems that the wise men (more accurately “magi”and we don’t’ actually know the number) may not have actually been on the scene of Jesus’ birth (a discussion for another time), they came to fulfill a longing. They came looking for a king. And, more importantly, they came to worship The King.
They said so themselves:
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.
This longing of worship is a natural and spiritual longing for all of us. It’s part of our design as humans.
Rest assured, we will all worship something or someone.
Something or someone has our attention and affection. It’s what we think about most. It’s what we spend money on most. It’s what gets most of our time. It’s the priority of our thoughts, our wallet, and our time.
We were created by God to be worshipers. And if we aren’t worshiping Him, we are worshiping something or someone else.
The magi came to find and worship The King.
C.S. Lewis wrote,
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
If we think about it enough, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that nothing in this world truly satisfies. Even when we get more of it.
Money and stuff don’t satisfy, because we always find ourselves wanting more. And the more we have, the more we have to maintain, and the more concerned we get about losing it all. Money and stuff aren’t evil, they just don’t satisfy.
Our jobs don’t satisfy, because giving more time to our jobs makes us a workaholic. Jobs are good. Work is good. They just don’t ultimately satisfy.
Relationships don’t ultimately satisfy the longing, because people – including you and me – are imperfect, and people let us down. That doesn’t mean relationships are bad. They’re just imperfect.
The “more” we are driven to is eternal. The “more” we were created for is God Himself.
As C.S. Lewis said, we are made for another world.
That’s why our ultimate human longing can only be filled through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
So, this Christmas, do what the magi did. Seek after Jesus and learn to worship Him. Come to a Christmas service at Grace, either in-person or online. You can find more details below.