Hosanna, Lord save us,
Hosanna, our Savior
Burress McCombe, “Hosanna, Lord Save Us”
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| Photo by Syd Sujuaan on Unsplash |
Clumsy and non-life-threatening maritime disasters aside, though, we’re learning to tread carefully on many subjects so as to preserve precious friendships.
This is good for us.
Relationship is like the Suez, and you can’t go in there jerking the wheel around and expect to sail smoothly.
We can agree giant boats aren’t supposed to be stuck in canals.
We can pretty much agree we don’t like covid.
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| We can probably agree that this lamb named Oreo is adorable. |
Surely we can agree the world isn’t as it should be.
It seems obvious to me that *I* am not as I should be. And you are not as you should be.
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| Jeddy helping Caleb with his math |
So, in a way, is it good for me to be enveloped with events that put me in the exhausting state of unceasing yearning?
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| Jeddy, Caleb, Ada working hard |
Currently—I know this is a controversial stance—I am yearning for my covid vaccine.
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| Lizzy working hard |
In past seasons, I have yearned to go off to college; for my wedding day to arrive; for my babies to be born; to move into new houses; for vacations; over and over for school breaks. I have yearned for restored health, both mine and my kids’; for restored relationships; for the end of various challenging stages of child rearing (ahem, potty training). Every year I yearn for spring to arrive.
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| Buck working hard |
Yearning is exhausting. It is consuming. Sometimes I feel it in the pit of my stomach. And these are for things that will last, what, 80 years, max, in the grand scheme of things? Or less, if it’s the arrival of spring break I’m waiting for.
What if God gave me a season of pleasant, easy relationships, good health all around, a spiffy house, and a vacation with charming children? For how long would I be satisfied?
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| Ada felted me a penguin! |
Being made by the finger of God in the image of God, I wouldn’t be satisfied. Because I wasn’t made for a world with merely functioning bodies and the ebb and flow of novel things that never quite hit the mark. The best moments of my life, in fact, are bittersweet and arouse some of my heart’s deepest longings. The better the vacation, the more bitter the departure. Good times make me desperate to hold onto them, to savor the moment, because we know they are fleeting. Even in the greatest moment of my life, I spoke of my inevitable demise: til death do us part.
We are perpetually either longing for better or longing to hold on to the good.
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| And she made me garden signs! |
I am convinced that God gives us these painful seasons of longing to hone our desire for that land where the cries of our heart will be answered.
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| The kids and I checked out the local school’s playground, which we’ve never been to, despite living next to it for six years. |
I have big plans for after I’m vaccinated. I’m going to go back to my favorite thrift store and touch all the things. I’m going to reunite with neglected friends. I’m going to switch from my N95 to pretty masks that coordinate with my outfit. I’m going to hug my mom.
But one day, in 80 years or less, I’m gonna see the hand that took the nails for me. One day, I’ll take a walk with Jesus.* I will see Him—He of Whom the prophets wrote, He on Whom all the hopes of God’s people past, present and future rest, the One they correctly identified on Palm Sunday as the hope of nations.
I’ll be with the saints without having to tiptoe around offensive subjects.
It won’t get old, it won’t get worn out, it won’t give way to a different set of problems.
It won’t be fleeting, but it will last. The world will be as it should be. *I* will be as I should be. My heart will wait, and yearn, and cry out—no more.
Hosanna—Lord save us.
We will stand as children of the promise;
We will fix our eyes on Him...
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight.
Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, & Stuart Townend, “By Faith”
*FFH, “One of These Days”; Aaron Shust, “One Day”
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