Captivated

C. S. Lewis once said, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."


I often feel this way.

My soul hungers for something wholly different from this world. Everything I see and touch intensifies the longing. The chill in the air not only makes me long to be by a warm fire, but for a soul-fire that is all consuming. My hunger for physical rest and nourishment makes me yearn even more for the day that I will no longer need those things. I need that which is eternal. My desires are other-worldly.


I see beauty all around me, but it not enough just to see it, to appreciate it. I long to be swept up into it...to be consumed. The world's attempts at creating beauty leave me with a bitter aftertaste, cold and still longing. It is as if I hope against hope that the earth's drink will satisfy the thirst, only to find it is lukewarm and tastes like ash. And as if I hope that it's coat will radiate warmth from the inside out, but still find that it's leaves me cold as soon as I take it off. Neither the world, nor anything in it can bring relief to the one whose soul is perishing with longing.


But today...


My soul has known the Beautiful one and I am known by Him. I have been consumed by Him and my life is in Him. I often forget that the Majestic King of Kings resides inside of me. His Spirit beckons me to be full and overflowing with him. In Him...I am in Him! He is the very beauty for which I long! He is the drink that satisfies, the all-consuming flame and the beauty that never wanes, but grows more irresistible with every new revelation.


Someday I will leave this earth. I will join Him in the place I was made for. I will do what I was made to do: worship my beautiful King forever. This body will stay and my soul will be at last swept up in to eternity...How I long for that day!

But for the time I am here, my desire today is to be:

Captivated by You

I am captivated by You

May my life be one unbroken gaze

Fixed upon the beauty of Your face