Well, I'm back home from Wheaton... and being back has started me thinking about something: the homesickness/nostalgia phenomenon. I don't know why, but it's something that intrigues me. We talked about this a bit in my Intro to Christian Education class, and I've been continuing to mull it over for the last few days. I think the thing that I find most interesting about homesickness/nostalgia is that I believe it points to something more: our longing for Heaven.
To some, this might seem like a stretch, but I don't really think it is. Looking at homesickness/nostalgia scientifically, it doesn't really make much sense (in my opinion). There is no evolutionary necessity for homesickness; longing for home wouldn't seem to help one survive. In fact, I find that daydreaming can often be distracting, and that goes against the rules of evolution in my mind. Of course the argument could be made that homesickness is a longing for a place of safety. In a lot of ways, though, Wheaton College is much more "safe" than back home. Not that I'm going to get "capped" walking the streets of WDM, but I don't feel that WDM is necessarily "safer" than the "Wheaton Bubble". What could be the purpose of our deep sense of longing then?
I believe that longing is one "tool" that God uses to woo us to himself (I think the definitions that dictionary.com provides are pretty interesting... so I included a link.). With the "nostalgia phenomenon", you find yourself longing for a time/place in your past. But re-visiting this place of the past in the present time doesn't usually bring satisfaction; things and people have changed and it isn't the same as you remember. I've come at least partly to this realization in my visits back to Naperville. Things have changed. Even the school, while not changing physically, has changed some of it's policies and character that in my mind made it what it was. What we are longing for in this world doesn't seem to satisfy, even though we so desperately expect it to.
So how does this relate to God wooing us? Has He simply created this unsatisfiable longing in us to make us discontent? In a way, yes. Through this longing that is "unquenchable", I believe that it is expected that we will be unsatisfied with this fallen world. But what else does it show? Just as hunger shows a need for food and thirst a need for water, I believe that this longing shows our need for Heaven. Heaven is what we are really longing for, and in our homesickness/nostalgia we are finding bits of Heaven in worldly things that we use to try and satisfy us. We are never fully satisfied, though, because they can't be "fully Heaven".
This next week I'm off to California, where I lived for four years near the beginning of my life. It will be interesting to see what memories match up to what I see and which ones fall short. I'm trying to prepare myself to be wooed by God, though, as I am sure I will see longings unsatisfied (things change after fifteen or so years, especially when the memories are from the perspective of a three-year-old). I want to try and keep in mind what I am really longing for, and I hope that by doing so, I will be able to better understand who God really is.
Technorati Tags: Longing, Heaven, Nostalgia, Childhood
To some, this might seem like a stretch, but I don't really think it is. Looking at homesickness/nostalgia scientifically, it doesn't really make much sense (in my opinion). There is no evolutionary necessity for homesickness; longing for home wouldn't seem to help one survive. In fact, I find that daydreaming can often be distracting, and that goes against the rules of evolution in my mind. Of course the argument could be made that homesickness is a longing for a place of safety. In a lot of ways, though, Wheaton College is much more "safe" than back home. Not that I'm going to get "capped" walking the streets of WDM, but I don't feel that WDM is necessarily "safer" than the "Wheaton Bubble". What could be the purpose of our deep sense of longing then?
I believe that longing is one "tool" that God uses to woo us to himself (I think the definitions that dictionary.com provides are pretty interesting... so I included a link.). With the "nostalgia phenomenon", you find yourself longing for a time/place in your past. But re-visiting this place of the past in the present time doesn't usually bring satisfaction; things and people have changed and it isn't the same as you remember. I've come at least partly to this realization in my visits back to Naperville. Things have changed. Even the school, while not changing physically, has changed some of it's policies and character that in my mind made it what it was. What we are longing for in this world doesn't seem to satisfy, even though we so desperately expect it to.
So how does this relate to God wooing us? Has He simply created this unsatisfiable longing in us to make us discontent? In a way, yes. Through this longing that is "unquenchable", I believe that it is expected that we will be unsatisfied with this fallen world. But what else does it show? Just as hunger shows a need for food and thirst a need for water, I believe that this longing shows our need for Heaven. Heaven is what we are really longing for, and in our homesickness/nostalgia we are finding bits of Heaven in worldly things that we use to try and satisfy us. We are never fully satisfied, though, because they can't be "fully Heaven".
This next week I'm off to California, where I lived for four years near the beginning of my life. It will be interesting to see what memories match up to what I see and which ones fall short. I'm trying to prepare myself to be wooed by God, though, as I am sure I will see longings unsatisfied (things change after fifteen or so years, especially when the memories are from the perspective of a three-year-old). I want to try and keep in mind what I am really longing for, and I hope that by doing so, I will be able to better understand who God really is.
Technorati Tags: Longing, Heaven, Nostalgia, Childhood
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