The recent violence at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shattered the lives of individuals and families connected to that school and town, and shocked countless others throughout our nation and around the world.
Amid the grief, sorrow, and horror that we feel over the loss of these students and teachers, there is an urgent longing in the hearts of many of us for a safer society as we struggle to make sense of this violence, especially since it occurred during a holy season in which we are preparing to celebrate the birth of the Christ child who came to bring peace on earth.
For several weeks before the massacre, our choir had been rehearsing music to celebrate the joyful Christmas story, and one anthem in particular had stirred in me a longing for a closer, more intimate relationship with God. In the days following the massacre, the anthem, “The Yearning,” became even more significant to me because it spoke to the grief and sorrow that we’re experiencing.
Written by Susan Bentall Boersma, with music by Craig Courtney, “The Yearning” expresses the following:
There is a yearning in hearts weighed down by ancient grief
and centuries of sorrow.
There is a yearning in hearts that in the darkness hide
and in the shades of death abide,
a yearning for tomorrow.
There is a yearning, a yearning for the promised One,
the First-born of creation.
There is a yearning for the Lord who visited His own,
and by His death for sin atoned, to bring to us salvation.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
There is a yearning that fills the hearts of those who wait the day of His appearing.
There is a yearning when all our sorrows are erased
and we shall see the One who placed within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts the yearning.
This anthem resonates with me because it reminds us that in a world in which we are often confronted with pain, sorrow, grief, and death, we have God’s assurance that in Jesus Emmanuel—“God is with us” (Matthew 1:22-23).
It reminds us that the yearnings that we have had as a human race since ancient times have been yearnings for God who alone who can fill the void within our souls.
It reminds us that God took on the form of humanity and appeared to us as a baby who grew up to become the promised One—the Messiah who would sacrifice his life to save us so that we would not have to pay the eternal penalty for our sins.
It reminds us that we yearn for the day when Jesus Emmanuel will appear again, not as a babe in a manger, but as the triumphant “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelations 19:16) to establish a new heaven and new earth for all his redeemed people throughout the ages, a divine Kingdom in which there will be no pain, sickness, sorrow, death, or evil.
It reminds us of Jesus’ promise:
“Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22: 7, 12-13; NLT, 2007)
And it reminds us that as our nation mourns the death of twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook School and debates how to stem the gun violence, we yearn for the promised fulfillment of Christ’s imminent return to establish his Kingdom of peace on earth.
And we echo the Apostle John’s yearning and benediction:
“Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelations 22:20, NLT)
Amen, Derrick! Well said.
Thank you, Dan. And thanks for your leadership of the choir.
Reblogged this on Shandra Harris With Heart Wide Open and commented:
Lovely. Emmanuel.
Shandra, thanks for the reblog! Blessings.
I just saw your post on Shandra’s reblog..the title…immediately after making this comment on my blog to a fellow blogger… thought it was interesting..the title of your post, immediately after making this comment here:
Yes…me too! There is this urgency to spend all the time I can studying, reading, following the events in the world that pertain to fulfillment of prophecy.. every day, there is a heaviness upon my heart…I cry as I pray and I dont know why. I pray in the Spirit, and the other day I was doing so and I broke down in tears, and the words were words I’ve never heard myself speak..they sounded very Hebrew or something..and it was agonizing, pleading….. the Lord is very sad by what is going on, but it must be. Being made in His image, if we are sad, He is 10,000,000,000,000 more times sad then we can ever imagine.
Thanks, Lyn. We can be comforted in knowing that God understands our sorrow and is with us in our yearnings.
He sure is. And He is calling His people to abide closer in Him than ever before for what is ahead. To exhort and pray with one another, and to fill ourselves with Him as much as we can. I
Your title says it all. Thanks.
Merry Christmas, Larry.
Thank you for this post, Derrick. You have done a good job with a very difficult subject. Sometimes a horrific event takes place for no reason that leaves us numb. The grief all of these parents face is unimaginable. Our society seems to be breaking down all around us and the only answer the world has is more control, more authoritarianism, and more loss of freedom. Yet, the problem is and always has been human will making very bad choices and unless one turns the planet into a giant police state such events will continue to occur at times.
The Word of God is filled with accounts of good people suffering bad things that they in no way deserved or brought on themselves. And of course it was our Lord Himself who never did anything wrong yet suffered the worst fate of anyone who ever lived. And seeing the crucifixion allows us to see what this world really is. It is a fallen sinful world. It is a world where evil has a very powerful stake. It is a battleground.
But our Lord created a kingdom of peace and love and joy and righteousness and real fellowship. And it is in His kingdom that we find the answers to the yearning of our hearts. It was a great day when God became one of us, to live for us and die for us, and show us the way.
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” [John 16:33]
Merry Christmas, Derrick.
Merry Christmas to you, too, RJ. And thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Thank you for this beautiful post, Derrick. This song has been a moving one for me as we’ve sung it over the past couple months – particularly in light of recent tragedies, as well as my own struggles and those of loved ones. Thank you for deepening my experience of the song in sharing your own reflections.
Thanks, Molly. I’ve enjoyed serving with you.
Beautiful…