To Belong

We all have an innate desire to belong. Whether directed towards a family, community or just one person, the desire for belonging can be a powerful force. This is because we were made for fellowship. God designed us to need one another, but if we seek to satisfy our desire to belong apart from a relationship with God, we will never be satisfied.

To feel the bond of belonging to someone or even to a group of someones is the among the most wonderful experiences of the heart, and yet, this side of heaven that feeling is fleeting at best. We are sinful creatures clinging to other sinful creatures, expecting them to supply us with stability, acceptance, approval, and love.

But no one on earth can supply those things perfectly or completely, and we are left feeling empty again. To try to fill up the empty places in our hearts with human affection is like pouring water into a strainer and expecting it to stay full.

The only way to truly satisfy our hearts is to fill them with the love of God. To the aching of our hearts, God replies "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2-3)

Jesus came, died, rose, and ascended for one purpose: to make it possible for us to be with Him. He loves us more than anyone else could begin to love us, and He desires fellowship with us. That place He is preparing will be glorious, and it will be a place of fellowship.

When God allowed John to record what that place would be like, He began by announcing, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3)

The whole point of heaven is that we will be with the God to whom we belong. Our hearts ache here on earth because this is not our final destination. We are strangers and pilgrims in this world. (I Peter 2:11)

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (2 Corinthians 5:1-2)

Our hearts ache to belong, not just to our earthly homes and families, but to our final, perfect, heavenly home, where we will be forever with the Heavenly Father to whom we most wonderfully belong. That ache in our hearts is meant to draw us into closer fellowship with God now, looking forward to an eternity of "in-person" fellowship with Him.