As the Watchmen Wait for the Morning

So often life is marked by our longings. Our choices revolve around what we want, and longing pulls us around like we are a fish on a hook, taken wherever an unknown fisherman flings us.

Won’t our lives be happy if we know what we want and how to get it, and if in some necessary ending, we get what we want?

Recently, I’ve been working on writing a query letter for my manuscript. A basic expectation of a query (at least in mainstream American publishing) is that the writer makes clear what the protagonist wants. There is an assumption that desire creates action, which creates change, and voila, we have a story.

Of course, this is not necessarily what makes a story around the world and throughout history, but this is my context. Regardless, longing in general, of course, is a universal human experience. This begs the question…

Is longing a problem that needs to be solved?

All of advertising seems to suggest that longing must be fulfilled for happiness—hey, look, won’t you be happier if you just buy this amazing, life-changing product? Look here! Look here! They control your eyes to steer the rest of your body.

Some might suggest rejecting longing as the only way to find freedom. But how can you undo such an essential human emotion?

The Bible is very familiar with longing. Abraham and Sarah long for a child, and when God promises one, they try to take it into their own hands instead of trusting God. After much patience (or even impatience), God finally sends them Isaac. But the Bible doesn’t shy away from showing their desperation and impatience for their longing to be fulfilled, even if they have to go around God (the giver of all good gifts) to somehow ascertain the subject of their longing. However, they eventually find that their longing and God’s promise is only fulfilled by the Creator Himself. (Genesis 21)

How often does our longing become our God? Even when we get what we want, the process of longing always begins again. What if we had this or that!

Longing, on this side of heaven, is unsolvable. We will never be fulfilled or satisfied, not in perpetuity. I’d like to suggest that this is good news. Or perhaps, I’d more so like to suggest that this is timely news.

Our hope is shown in our longing, as God becomes, more and more, the object of our longing; our longing is a sign of our desperation for God, for New Creation, for Resurrection Life with Him.

Our longing is worship.

My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. – Psalm 119:20

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. – Psalm 130:5-6

Our longing is revelatory truth. We need God to bring redemption. We need Him to come as we rely on the sun to make its circuit and relieve us of our duties. As we wait for the return of Jesus. We watch for Him. We long for Him.

In this time, before Jesus comes again, we must be marked by longing for Him. Life-giving longing. Longing that points to the greater eternity. Longing that points to Heaven. Longing that points to the Kingdom of God.

Dear Lord, You are the fulfillment of our desires. Keep our eyes on You. We long for You, and in longing, we wait for You. All praise to You. Amen.