O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error, pining
Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth
I think the third line of this hymn expresses an emotion that many feel during the Christmas season, “Long lay the world – pining.”
Pining means to yearn deeply, to have an overwhelming longing for something or someone. Isn’t it true, that right now, as you read this commentary, you are longing for something. You may not even know what it is that your heart yearns for, but there is no denying that it yearns.
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and writer said: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
Perhaps you have tried to satisfy the longing of your heart in all manner of ways but the pining persists. Could it be that Pascal is correct? That the vacuum in your heart is God-shaped and therefore can only be satisfied with God?
The fourth line of the hymn reads: “Till He appeared.” Why did Jesus appear in human history? Jesus said that He came to seek and to save those who are lost. Lost? In what way might a person be lost? Easy, we take a wrong turn: in a store, on a hike, while driving, and we get lost.
We go down a road hoping to find that which our heart longs for. But when we find it, we discover that it doesn’t deliver what we had in mind. We are left pining. That is the reason Jesus appeared. He came into the world because you are pining for that which only He can satisfy.
“And the soul felt its worth.” The coming of Jesus is His way of showing us what we are worth. Why would Jesus enter a world that despised and rejected Him? It costs a great deal to buy something of great worth. Jesus laid down His life for you. Does that not tell you something of your worth in His eyes?
Hope for your weary, pining soul is found when you fall on your knees and invite Jesus to fill your yearning heart.
Pastor Len Nation is with the Innisfail Baptist Church.
