The Crack in My Heart: Majestic Mountain View, part 5

by | Apr 10, 2020 | Majestic Mountain View, Priorities

“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.” (Matt 5:6, MSG)

We sure enjoy eating a delicious meal, especially if it is eggplant parmesan, my favorite. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water, and just the thought of enjoying this special treat on the weekend brightens the entire week. Even though I may have a week full of adversity, I will end up with a heavenly meal! Yum!

The same is true for a drink of freshly-squeezed carrot juice with ginger, as is made by the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca. Just thinking about it makes me thirsty. This is another brightener-up at the end of a tough week!

Still, no matter how good these taste, they are only temporary and are quickly forgotten-Until we have the opportunity to return to that particular restaurant, that is, something most of us, me included, cannot afford to do daily! Hopefully you are an exception . . .

Still, this kind of food leaves us still wanting. It may be truly delicious, but it will never fill us with inner peace, joy or love, and it can never give us a palpable purpose. Nothing in this world can fill this emptiness that most experience.

Last year we had the opportunity to camp for a few days in Percé, Québec. While there, we discovered a crevasse that had been slowly forming over centuries, eroded by water and the elements. In the 1920s, a woman named Madame Chauvin was so fascinated by this crevasse that she invested her own savings to ensure that this site would remain accessible to visitors year after year. For twenty years she developed the visitor’s site at the crevasse. She ensured that the road leading to it was maintained, as well as the trail. It’s no wonder that this crevasse received the name of “Craque à Madame Chauvin”, or in more understandable words: “Crack of Mrs. Chauvin”.

This was her fascination for a major part of her life. It gave her a purpose. Unfortunately, this same purpose could not fill the crack (emptiness) in her heart. Eventually that crack will become so eroded that it will completely crumble into oblivion.

“How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling.” (Rom 9:32, MSG)

Love comes and goes. So does food, work, hobbies, friends, and even purposes. Only One can assure us: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51, NIV2) and “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14, NIV2). Only One can fill us to overflowing, even filling in the cracks that leave us wanting.

Enjoy your delicious meal, or as we say in French, “Bon appétit!” Still, within hours you will be hungry again. The only meal that will never leave us wanting is to experience our Heavenly Father fully. It’s not religion that will satisfy us. It is our relationship with the One who made it possible for our hearts to be abundantly filled for eternity.

Imagine being embraced by the most powerful person of the universe, It will become a reality when we start walking with Him. Nothing will faze us any longer, as His love will sustain us no matter what our circumstances.

Where is my eggplant parmesan? I have been waiting for it for months . . .

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Majestic Mountain View” devotional series, please click here.)

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The Crack in My Heart: Majestic Mountain View, part 5

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