Our granddaughter Julia spent the summer working in an orphanage in Busia, Uganda. On the final day of her internship, she went to the children to say goodbye to them all. One little girl named Sumaya was very sad and said to her, “Tomorrow you leave us, and next week the other aunties [interns] leave.”

When Julia agreed that she was indeed leaving, Sumaya thought for a minute and exclaimed, “But we will be all empty. None of you will be left!” Again, Julia agreed. The little girl thought a few moments and replied: “But God will be with us, so we won’t be all empty.”

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that “all empty” feeling. It is an emptiness that friendship, love, sex, money, power, popularity or success can never ease—a longing for something more, something valuable but out of reach. Every good thing can remind, beckon and awaken in us a greater desire for that elusive ‘something more’. The closest we get is a hint, an echo in a face, a painting, a scene . . . and then it is gone.

We were made for God, and in the end, nothing less will satisfy us. Without Him, we are all empty. He alone fills the hungry with good things (Ps. 107:9).

Author

David H. Roper

Topics

Our Daily Bread