George...Do you yearn?

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The pain of separation is a gift! For the last 18 days I’ve been at home in NC away from my work at the “Fort”. I spent 18 days with my wife and kids. It is the longest we’ve been together in nearly a year. 18 days was long enough for me to get used to being with them. I left there reluctantly this morning at 0600. I left with my wife crying. She had some surgery last week and is on the mend right now. Since last week I was privileged to wait on her hand and foot. She needed everything done for her and what an honor it was. I left her this morning all snuggled in bed with our new electric blanket to come back to work and I’ve spent the better part of today by myself missing her. I’ve even missed my disobedient son. I’ve missed my daughter twirling around the house. I’ve missed the noise of a house with children. How is it that separation is a gift you say? I’ve realized that the pain of being away, the longing for closeness is God’s way of reminding me that I’m also to long for what I cannot see. I miss my family, but even when I’m with them, I long for something else. In the immortal words of Kramer on Seinfeld, “George, do you yearn?!” Well it’s true; I yearn for a land I have not seen. I yearn not for money or fame or power. I yearn for the home I’ve never been to. I long to see the fields Jesus has planted and tended since His return there. I dream of what life will be like there. I want to see the river of God and drink deeply from it. I want to eat from the tree of Life. I want to run and laugh and most of all I don’t want to be separated ever again from those I love. I think that will be the beauty of heaven, the absence of unsatisfied desire. So in the pain of absence, I sit and write encouraged, reminded, that coming sooner than later will be the elimination of the pain of separation. Till then the hurt reminds me I’m alive. It reminds me that there are those that hurt but have no hope. It reminds me that the proclamation of the Story continues. Jesus, May your unfailing love rest upon us Lord as we put our hope in You! Till then I wait, I work, I pray, I hurt, I long, I yearn and I hope for what I cannot yet see.

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