All we want in Christ, we shall find in Christ. If we want little, we shall find little. If we want much, we shall find much; but if, in utter helplessness, we cast our all on Christ, he will be to us the whole treasury of God.
~Henry Benjamin Whipple (1822-1901)
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in John 5
There is a deep truth in this world. Nothing truly satisfies us.
Nothing at all.
And we ache. And we long. We long for something to fill this vacuum in our soul. Our spirits cry out for fulfillment. Nothing works. Nothing at all.
And we dream and we hope and we pray. And He brings gorgeous and wonderful things into our lives. He brings us into beautiful relationships. Sometimes He even gives us the most beautiful of spouses. And with these spouses we share some of the most beautiful and intimate moments that are possible between two human beings.
And still it is not enough.
Oh beloved, we know what it is. Deep inside us we know the shape of that void in us. It is shaped like Him. For the void is not a hole inside of something whole. The void is us. We are fallen, broken and unable to be fixed – but for being made completely new.
Yeah, we can look for something to fix us. We can try that. How is that working for us? There is no need to answer the question friends. We know.
We know there is only One way to fulfillment. It is Him. Not His sublime example. Not the doctrines He promulgated. Him alone. We used to think that grace was riches handed over to us by G_d like some Christmas gift for us to open and use. But now we understand that the riches of Grace are a Person. Grace is Him.
But we know something further, that in this filling with Him, we are indeed full. The longing that held its edge even in the deepest moments of human love, no longer cuts us. We are filled to the full in Him, and fulfillment pours out of us onto others that they may gain the same desire to be filled by Him alone.
It seems the only questions before us are like these: Do we actually want our desires fulfilled? Or would we rather hurt and die in our pain? Consider this tonight friends. Do we want to be healed? Do we want to be fulfilled?
