Longing for the Day
Let’s be honest, 2020 has been—and continues to be—hard. So many areas of life are not as they should be. We can debate whether this is necessary, but we can’t deny it’s currently the reality. Many of the things we are used to, things we enjoy, some of them even things that are central to human flourishing, are either not currently possible or have been radically changed. As time goes on I, like many of us, I’m sure, find myself longing more and more for the things that are not as they should be to be put to rights.
I long for the day that we can hug again. I long for the day that I can once again embark on a long-distance train journey to see friends who live around the country. I long for the day I can be back in a theatre watching a performance and for the day I can go shopping without the barrier of glasses steaming up and paranoia about whether my shopping or my hands might be carrying a dangerous pathogen. And I long for the day when I can gather again with my brothers and sisters, God’s people together, standing side-by-side, worshipping with loud singing and sharing the bread and the cup. I long for the day that the things that are not as they should are put to rights, and as the days and weeks and months go by, I find that longing is only growing.
What makes this season even harder is that so many of these losses and limitations are things we just can’t do anything about, and even if we believe they are contributing to a greater good, they can still leave us feeling frustrated and weary.
I find often I need to keep reminding myself that there is a day coming—however far off it may feel—when these things will be put to rights. And I remind myself that however painful, however frustrating, however wearisome this current experience might be, I just need to keep taking one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other, and that day will come. Looking ahead to the hope of the restoration of ‘normality’, of life post-pandemic, is helping me to keep going now.
And it strikes me that in this small experience, there is a picture of a much bigger reality. Our current experience of life not being as it should be and the growing longing for the day when things are put to rights is a microcosm of what it’s like to live as a Christian in this age.
We live in a time when we know there are many things that are not as they should be. Some of those are things out in the world—injustice, war, natural disasters. Some of them are things that might occur in us—disease, injury, and sin. These things that are not as they should be can cause us to feel frustrated and weary. But we also live with the certain knowledge that there is a day when all of those things will come to an end. When everything wrong will be put right. And for the time being, however painful, however frustrating, however wearisome life in this age may feel, we can take one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other, and that day will come. And as we look ahead to that day, to the hope of the restoration of all things, it can help us to keep going now.
I’m looking forward to life beyond the pandemic, and that’s helping me to keep going, day-by-day. But it’s also helping me to lift my gaze to something even better; it’s increasing my longing for my eternal destiny, and that, even more so, is helping me to keep going, day-by-day.