“The desires of my heart are so great and incomprehensible
That nothing can fill the abyss of my heart.
Even the most beautiful things, gathered from all over the world,
Would not for a moment fill Your place for me, O God.” Divine Mercy in my soul # 1632
Gifts underneath the Christmas tree look so great. I can remember, as a young kid, the excitement of Christmas morning. Wondering on Christmas Eve what gifts I would receive the next morning. I can remember the sleepless nights and early mornings filled with anticipation of the gifts. Funny, though, of all the Christmases of my youth, I remember very few gifts received. I know many were on my Christmas list, but not what any were.
Move forward many years and I’m a dad. I wanted to give my kids the same excitement and joy I had as a kid. When my son was about 10, he wanted everything dinosaur, especially a fossil finding kit. With these kits, one would use tools to scrape away plaster until you find the fossil hidden within. We managed to find 3 of these kits for him. the look on his face when he opened the gifts is what a parent remembers more than the cost of the gifts.
The following year, early autumn, we were cleaning out closets and just doing some General fall cleaning. On the shelf, in the corner of the closet, we found two of fossil gifts still in the shrink wrap. As desired as these gifts were, they sat unopened.
It’s interesting how often we desire earthly possessions. We devote ourselves to work so much that we lose sleep, and sometimes relationships to obtain some worldly goal. We chase our tails looking for happiness in the world. Then, when we get the goal we had desired, we lose interest quickly and start the chase for a new goal.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” St. Augustine “Confessions”
Even if you had every treasure in the world all to yourself, this could not fill the longing in your heart. There is one thing and one thing alone that fills the void within you and that is the Lord and His holy Will. Nothing else suffices, yet we often work so hard at gaining more and more of the things that pass away.
When our goal is God, we find ourselves drinking from the spring. He constantly renews our spirit while always fulfilling our strongest desire. That is drawing closer to Jesus. This Gift is one that when received, one desires to give it away. And, the more we give it away, the more we receive.
““Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14