In Emptiness We Find God

There is a drive
A hunger or thirst
Within us all.
Some see it as the struggle
To be with family.

Some hope to find it
In the nearness and
Proximity of one sibling to
The other, maybe
Both parents nearby.


There is a sense of safety,
If all went well when one was raised.
There is a feeling of peace, of comfort
To see the familiar,
To hear the voices which have
Spoken throughout our
Lifetimes.


There is the drive to be with newborn
Children of children
To welcome them into the arena
Of peace and intimacy,
To invite them to be new
Participants in the life we
Have made for ourselves.


Yet, there are those families
That do not connect,
Those siblings who scatter at
The age of maturity.
Those parents who rarely see
Their children because of geography.

There are those fearful souls who
Cling to what they desire but never was,
Who mourn the disconnection, the
Inability to share the heart,
The loss of intimacy which they crave but,
do not recognize in any other disguise
But what they imagine.


This deep down yearning, this
Hunger for connection is
Never fulfilled to our expectations. It is
A God-ward desire disguised by human faces,
This emptiness waiting to be filled with peace, intimacy
With bliss, is underneath it all. Emptiness is
The call of God, the God-ward pull of
Our hearts, our lives, which never can be finally
Fulfilled until our
Life is found by God and
abandoned by us.


We place a heavy burden on siblings,
parents, friends
To fulfill our deepest yearning,
We make others responsible for our peace
When only God can make it so in the end!
The inner ache is never healed, nor sated
until we look beyond family
and discover God.



Richard W Smith
December 21,2010