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A Longing Soul

As the deer longs
 for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.Psalm 42:1

My neighbor, who has a touch for gardening, worked hard planting a delightful variety of flowers. They were a beautiful sight to behold!

 The flower garden, it turns out, was also a deer buffet. One morning about half a dozen deer showed up and enjoyed themselves devouring the buffet! I don't doubt that my neighbor would have preferred the deer "longed for streams of water" rather than her flowers.

 In this psalm King David complains about his exile and his distance from God's temple. In other words, he can't go to church. His soul longs for the renewal of God's presence because God felt distant, remote, absent. He asks if God has forgotten him and he wants to know where he can go to meet God. People are asking him, "Where is your God?"

 In times when we don’t go to church, or church is virtual, or seats are limited, we may experience the same longing in our souls. God can feel distant, remote or absent. It can feel as though everything about our faith is shrinking. If so, our tendency is to be discouraged and to start to think God is not involved anymore. That God’s kind of left town. It's easy to ask, in our journey of 2020 “Where is God?" In the pandemic, the economy, the hatred, violence, the campaign, “Where is God?”

 For me, just as the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for God, for returning to church. My soul longs for the presence of the family of God, hearing the Word and sharing at the Table, this is the longing of my soul

 But I know God is a living God. God is concerned about our life and world today.

 That's why I hope in God.

That's why I wait for God.

That's why I know God lives, hears, and answers us.


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