How the Word, Longing, Reveals the Heart of God, our Heavenly Parent.
Understanding Deep Love That Reaches Across Separation
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever missed someone so deeply that you feel their absence in your heart? Perhaps they live far away. Perhaps circumstances have separated you. Or perhaps you have experienced the pain of losing someone you love.
When I think about the people I miss, I think about my three sisters—two sisters and one sister-in-law—who passed away from cancer over the past four years. Now being the only sister brings a deep sense of loneliness and sadness. But when I think about them, I also realise something else. I miss them because they are precious to me. I miss them because I love them.
When we think about someone we deeply miss, something happens within our heart. We remember their face. We remember the moments we shared, the conversations, the laughter and the experiences that became part of our lives.
Sometimes the feeling is much deeper than simply thinking, “I haven't seen this person for a long time.” There can be an ache in the heart. A desire to be together again. A yearning to see them, to hear their voice, to sit beside them once more.
Longing is an expression of deep, heart-aching love.
Perhaps this human experience can help us understand something profound about the heart of our Heavenly Parent. The heart of our Heavenly Parent is a heart of longing.
Read on to understand how the word, longing, reveals the heart of God, our Heavenly Parent.
WHAT IS LONGING?
The English word longing describes a very strong desire for someone or something. Its Old English origins include meanings such as to desire, to wish for earnestly and to grieve. Interestingly, the word was also connected with the idea of distance.
There is something beautiful about that connection.
When someone precious is far away, our heart reaches towards them.
It is almost as though our heart stretches across the distance between us. Longing is a heart-ache for the one you love to be near.
WHAT IS YEARNING?
Yearning describes a very strong desire for something, especially something that is difficult to obtain or that we cannot easily have.
Its Old English origins carried meanings such as to desire, to wish for earnestly, to seek and to search.
Yearning emphasises the intensity and earnestness of our desire—a strong desire that rises from deep within the heart.
WHAT IS MISSING SOMEONE?
The dictionary defines “miss” as:
“To feel sad that a person or thing is not present or cannot be experienced.”
When we say, “I miss you,” we are expressing the sadness and sense of absence that comes when someone we care about is not with us.
We might really be saying:
“I wish you were here.”
“I wish I could see you.”
“I wish you were beside me.”
We use the words longing, yearning, and missing to describe experiences that are closely connected, yet each gives us a slightly different glimpse into what happens within our hearts.
We long because someone is precious to us.
Longing reveals that a relationship matters.
It is an expression of deep, heart-aching love.
JEONG: THE BOND CREATED THROUGH LOVE
There is a Korean word, jeong (정), that offers another beautiful way of understanding this feeling. Jeong does not have a perfect English translation. It can be understood as an emotional bond that naturally develops between people through love, time, shared experiences and the life they build together.
And there is something very important about jeong: It cannot be forced. We cannot simply decide, “Starting today, I am going to have jeong for this person.” It does not work that way. Jeong develops naturally.
As we spend time together, share experiences, care for one another, and give and receive love, something begins to develop between us.
That bond becomes deeper over time.
Jeong is not exactly the same as love. Rather, we can understand jeong as something that builds up through the giving and receiving of love. So we can say that jeong is the result of love.
When we have developed jeong with someone, the relationship becomes something deeper than simply saying: “I love this person.”
It becomes: “This person has become a part of my life.”
That is why jeong is not something that can simply be erased.
If we had never shared anything with that person, we would not experience this kind of longing for them.
Love is exchanged within a relationship.
Through that love, jeong develops. When someone who has become part of our life is far away, or no longer with us, the heart can ache with longing.
THE HEART OF GOD, OUR HEAVENLY PARENT: A HEART OF LONGING
Why does this matter when we think about Heavenly Parent?Because our own human experience may give us a small glimpse into the heart of God.
The heart of Heavenly Parent is a heart of longing. It is not something Heavenly Parent has to force in order to feel. It flows naturally. It does not change. It is eternal—a heart that naturally longs for His/Her children.
So when we speak about the heart of Heavenly Parent, we are speaking about a heart that continually reaches towards His/Her children. Who is it that Heavenly Parent longs for so deeply?
It is us—each and every one of us.
We can begin to understand this longing when we consider the relationship that Heavenly Parent has desired to build with humanity.
God invested in us. God has a big dream and desire of wanting to live together with His/Her children. That means the relationship between Heavenly Parent and humanity is much deeper and older than any relationship we can experience as human beings.
Think about that for a moment.
A parent may spend twenty years raising a child. Twenty years of caring for them. Twenty years of worrying about them. Twenty years of watching them grow. Even after twenty years, parents continues to love their child.
Now imagine Heavenly Parent.
God's investment in humanity reaches back to the very beginning of creation. To Heavenly Parent, we are not strangers. We are His children. We are beings with whom He has formed an ancient and profound bond. That is why humanity is the object of God's longing.
THE FATHER WAITING FOR THE PRODIGAL SON
We can see glimpses of God's longing heart throughout the Bible. Perhaps one of the clearest examples is Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son.
The son leaves his father's house and takes his share of the family inheritance with him. Eventually, he wastes all that he has and finds himself in a very difficult situation. Finally, he decides to return home.
Perhaps he expects his father to be angry. Perhaps he wonders whether his father will accept him again. But while the son is still far away, the father sees him and runs towards him.
“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” — Luke 15:20
The father does not wait for his son to reach the house. The father's heart moves towards him. The son had taken his inheritance and gone away, yet the father's heart had not given up on him. Instead of focusing only on what the son had done wrong, the father welcomed him home. He prepared a feast and even gave him a precious ring. The father's heart was still reaching towards his son.
Perhaps this is one of the clearest explanations Jesus gives us of the heart of Heavenly Parent.
The son had wandered away, but he had never ceased to be the father's son. The relationship remained. The father's love remained and the father's longing for his son remained. In fact, when the son finally returned, the father's joy was overwhelming.
This is also something we can understand about Heavenly Parent.
Even when children wander away, God does not stop seeing them as His/Her children. God's continues to wait for them and when they turn back towards God, our Heavenly Parents heart rejoices.
A LOVE THAT DOES NOT GIVE UP
Rev. Dr Sun Myung Moon described this kind of parental love:
“That love is a love that gives infinitely. Even when it encounters difficulties again and again, there is no end to it. It does not end because of those difficulties; rather, it continues to go deeper and deeper—a love so deep that you want to give yourself completely.”
Heavenly Parent's love is not based only on whether someone speaks well, looks a certain way or performs well. It is a love that sees the preciousness of the person themselves.
No matter who we are, what we look like, what we have accomplished, or where we may still have room to grow, we remain precious to Heavenly Parent. Perhaps this is why the heart of Heavenly Parent is a heart of longing.
The longing exists because the love is so deep.
THE ACHE OF SEPARATION
When we experience longing, we think about the distance, the absence, the separation. But perhaps we can look more deeply. What is the heart- ache telling us? It tells us that someone matters. It tells us that a relationship exists. It tells us that someone has become precious to our heart.
Longing is an expression of deep, heart-aching love.
We do not long for someone because we have stopped loving. We long because we love deeply. The deeper the relationship, the deeper the longing can be when we are separated.
Perhaps this gives us a small glimpse into the heart of Heavenly Parent. Humanity has experienced separation from God. Some people have wandered away. Some have forgotten. Some people have never known that Heavenly Parent is reaching towards them.
But God, our Heavenly Parent does not forget His/Her children and continues to reach towards them. The love remains, and therefore the longing remains.
HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED THAT HEAVENLY PARENT MISSES US?
We often think about ourselves missing God. We may ask: Where is God? Why don't I feel God's presence? Why does God seem so far away?
Perhaps there is another question we can ask: What if Heavenly Parent misses us?
What if God's heart aches for a relationship with His/Her children What if, just as we long for someone because they are precious to us, Heavenly Parent longs for us because we are precious to Him/Her?
Perhaps this changes the way we approach our relationship with God.
We do not have to begin by asking whether we have done enough. We do not have to prove our worth. We can begin by opening our hearts, recognising God's love that has already been given to us and turning our hearts back towards our Heavenly Parent.
THE HEART THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE
Through every season of our lives, God has been raising us, guiding us and walking with us. There may have been moments when we experienced God's love without fully understanding it. Perhaps through another person. Perhaps through prayer. Perhaps through nature. Perhaps during a difficult time when we unexpectedly felt that we were not alone. Perhaps through a quiet feeling in our heart.
These moments can give us a small glimpse into the heart of Heavenly Parent. Even though we may have experienced God's love, there is always more of His/Her heart for us to discover. We may understand one part of God's heart today and discover something deeper tomorrow.
Perhaps the heart of longing is one of those deeper discoveries.
Longing is love reaching across the distance when we miss someone, the pain can be real. But perhaps we can also recognise what lies beneath the pain - Love.
The person is precious. The relationship matters. The heart wants to be close again. That is why longing can ache so deeply. Longing is not simply the pain of separation. Longing is an expression of deep, heart-aching love.
Perhaps this is what allows us to begin understanding the heart of Heavenly Parent. A heart that has never stopped reaching towards His/Her children. A heart that has never forgotten. A heart that continues to wait. A heart that longs—not because love is missing, but because love is so deeply present.
CONCLUSION
So, as we finish, take a quiet moment. Think of someone you love. Think of someone you miss. Think of someone you have been waiting to see again.
As you feel that longing, perhaps you can begin to understand a little more of the heart of Heavenly Parent.
Because longing is not simply the pain of being separated from someone. Longing is evidence of love. We long for someone because they are precious to us.
Heavenly Parent longs for us because we are precious.
We have never been forgotten. Even when we were far away, Heavenly Parent's heart was still reaching towards us. So perhaps we can open our hearts and receive God's love. Let us respond to that love by turning our hearts back towards our Heavenly Parent.
The heart of Heavenly Parent is a heart of longing.
A heart that aches for children. A heart that continues to reach towards us. A heart that waits with an unchanging love. Perhaps, when we finally recognise that heart, we will realise: Heavenly Parent has been longing for us all along.
Written by Anne Bellavance
President, WFWP Australia
