That Terrible Freedom.

Only God can fill the empty place within us. Why? Because He made that place to be filled with His presence. It was not just to make us miserable; once upon a time it was filled, and would have been prepared for something even greater.


But, in that ages-old story we have come to know so well, that story that we know and yet really don't know at all--the one that many of us have passed up as a lovely myth to explain the world--we were whole, though not complete. We walked in happiness; we communed with our Father and loved the world He had given us.


But we fell; we trusted our own judgement rather than His providence, and rejected His sustenance for our self-sufficiency.


The thing is, in a tragic way, we got what we asked for. That is usually what happens to us. Our Father has given us free will because He wants us to choose Him of our own accord, out of free obedience that comes from love. But that gift comes at a cost: for we really can choose. And what we choose, we get. We chose self-sufficiency, and the Presence of God left us. He would not be present in a soul that rejected Him--where then would the choice be? So we acted on our own, and suddenly found we were on our own. We got more than we bargained for, for sure, but we got it nonetheless.


That is why so many are empty. And to say so is not to diminish the particular sufferings each has experienced, but those sufferings are part of the vast web that has been woven around us because of that first rejection.


But the joyful thing is, He still wants to dwell within us, with us as eternal Family to us. That choice was not absolute. There is still hope. We cannot be fully reunited with Him in this world, but that void can begin to be filled. And if we accept His incredible humble sacrifice that made it possible, one day that place will not only be filled, but saturated beyond our wildest imaginings.


Yet again, though--the choice is ours. What a frightening freedom, and yet how blessed it can be!