Hope and Longing: a reflection

Hope and Longing are related, as Plantinga says, in that longing helps to create hope. Now I think it is safe to assume that everyone knows what longing is and has an idea of what hope is. So let us begin with longing. Longing is a want so ingrained and so desired that it captivates the longer's (the person who is longing's) heart. We see this all the time in our everyday life be it as a lover longs for his beloved or as a thirsty worker out in the hot sun longs for a cool refreshing drink of water. Hope is much the same except for it involves looking forward to something that is not yet or a state of being that has not yet been achieved but has only been talked about and involves the same longing for these things to come about.

These emotions tend to, but not always, be linked to things that are good for us or bring us happiness. However, often what one longs or hopes for disappoints. Thus, the question of why do these emotions exist if they only serve to torment us comes about. To answer this question, we must think about the creator of humanity and the fall of the human race. God, as the creator of mankind and all things, would want them to know him on a personal level and to attempt to facilitate that he bestowed humanity with the emotions of longing which would lead the person to want to find a thing or being that could satisfy their innate desire to be loved which could only be totally satisfied by God, their loving creator. After all, who loves a child greater than the child's parents? So the same applies to God. After the fall, the ability to be extremely intimate with God was impaired and so the longing what we experienced for God's ultimate love became a hope because it required a renewal of humanity to a higher state of being that has not yet come about. Thus both hope and longing are tools that are meant to point to God. However, too often humanity settles for small fleeting unsatisfactory earthly loves to fill the need for love that can only be filled by God. This sadly means that many of us humans never come to meet God and so it falls to us, Christians, to help reveal to others that they need not ever feel unloved but instead can lavish all their love on God who loves them impossibly more than can be comprehended.