There dwells inside you, deep within you, a tiny whippoorwill. Listen.
You will hear him sing.
His aria mourns the dusk. His solo signals the dawn. He will not be silent until the sun is seen.
We forget he is there, so easy is he to ignore. Other animals of the heart are larger, noisier, more demanding. more imposing. But none is so constant.
Other creatures of the soul are more quickly fed. More simply satisfied. We feed the lion who growls for power. We stroke the tiger who demands affection. We bridle the stallion who bucks control.
But what do we do with the whippoorwill who yearns for eternity?
For that is his song. That is his task. Out of the gray he sings a golden song. Perched in time he chirps a timeless verse. Peering through pain’s shroud, he sees a painless place. Of that place he sings.
And though we try to ignore him, we cannot. He is us, and his song is ours. Our heart song won’t be silenced, until we see the dawn.
“God has planted eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:10 TLB), says the wise man. But it doesn’t take a wise person to know that people long for more than earth. When we see pain, we yearn. We we see hunger, we question why. Senseless deaths. Endless tears, needless loss. Where do they come from? Where will they lead?
Isn’t there more to life than death?
And so sings the whippoorwill.
Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. By gracing us with a deep dissatisfaction, God holds our attention. The only tragedy, then, is to be satisfied prematurely. To settle for earth. To be content in a strange land. To intermarry with the Babylonians and forget Jerusalem.
We are not happy here because we are not at home here. We are not happy here because we are not supposed to be happy here. We are “like foreigners and strangers in this world” (I Peter 2:11)…
And you will never be completely happy on earth simply because you were not made for earth. Oh, you will have your moments of joy. You will catch glimpses of light. You will know moments of even days of peace. But they simply do not compare with the happiness that lies ahead.
excerpt from When God Whispers Your Name by Max Lucado