Whom Do You Long To See?

Whom Do You Long To See?

I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: “The Lamb is worthy—the Lamb who was killed. He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” –Revelation 5:11-12

“ ‘I really want to go to heaven to see Johnny, but I’m struck that I want to go almost more to see him than to see Jesus.’ I knew how my wife felt. If only we could long for heaven and long for Christ as we long for our son.”

When I first read these words in A Grief Unveiled by Gregory Floyd, I felt like they gave voice to the conflict I felt inside. Suddenly I was longing for heaven and it seemed so real. And yet, if I was honest, it was not Jesus I was longing to see and enjoy most of all; it was Hope. But I didn’t want to admit it. Not to myself, and certainly not to anybody else. It seemed to me a sad commentary on the inferior state of my love for Christ.

Should you feel guilty about wanting to see someone you love in heaven? I don’t think so. It is a desire God uses to awaken us to himself. When someone we love is there, heaven becomes more real and our longing more vivid. It is a sacred longing.

If we follow where this longing takes us, we discover that every human love is only a taste of the love and intimacy God wants to share with us. Our sense of loneliness and incompleteness can lead us on a downward spiral of disappointment or on a path toward the satisfaction we seek in loving and being loved in return—a desire that can only be fully satisfied in God himself. Our longings are gifts from God that reveal our inner emptiness and send us on a search for a love that will never leave us or disappoint us.

While people we love are precious to us and our reunions with them in heaven will be grand, the fact that we long for them more than we long for Jesus reflects our current human limitations of taking in the beauty and magnificence of Jesus. In heaven, we will see him in his fullness, and we will not have to choose between focusing on the people we love and loving Jesus with our whole heart. We’ll be swept up with the chorus of heaven singing, “The Lamb is worthy” (Revelation 5:12). And together with those we love, we will look to Jesus.

Worthy Lamb, take the limited longing I have for you and deepen and expand it until that day I sing to you in heaven with those I love. You are worthy!

DIGGING DEEPER