“Even perfection has its limits” (Psalm119:96)
Longings. We all have them. Are they bad? No. In fact, God has given us longings as a gift. Think about it. We literally came into this world with a longing. We had a longing for milk. How could that be? We did not see or taste milk while in the womb. And yet, inside each of us was this longing for milk. We didn’t even know if such a thing existed, or what it was called. But it turned out that longing did exist. It turned out our longing was real. Every baby ever born, around the world, came into this world with a longing for milk. And for someone who could supply it.
Then as we grew older, our longing for milk passed away. And as it did, we began longing for other things. A longing for happiness. A longing for contentment. A longing for peace. A longing for relationship. But not just any happiness, or contentment, or peace, or relationship. No, our longing was for the perfection of all of them. We longed for that which won’t fail us, that which never disappoints us, that which doesn’t grow old or pass away. You could say we are obsessed with perfection. Just think about how much time you’ve spent looking for the perfect house, or car, or job, or set of dishes for the kitchen. Do we devote all that time because we are greedy, or is it because we have a desire for that which we determine is perfect?
But here’s the thing about the search for perfection. It is impossible for the world to give us the perfection we long for. Sooner or later that perfect house we found will need a new roof, new furnace, new dishwasher. Sooner or later that perfect relationship we think we’re in will have problems. Divorce proves that, and so does death. Sooner or later that perfect peace and contentment we think we have discovered is going to be disrupted with anxiety and stress from some outside source.
We know all this is true. So, the question is, why do we still long for perfection? The answer to that question takes us back to when we were born. Our longing for perfection now is the same reason we longed for milk when we entered this world. We longed for milk because though we had never seen it, milk existed. And we now long for perfection because though we have yet to see it, perfection exists. We long for perfect love because there is Perfect Love. We long for the Eternal because the Eternal exists.
These deepest longings that exist in our hearts, are there because God has placed them there. Because even when we have not seen the perfection of our deepest desires, God knows they exist, and he has placed those longings into our hearts so we would seek the most perfect thing a human being can have – Him.
Darlene