He has set eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11)

In his spiritual journal "Confessions" Augustine (345-430 AD) stated of God: "You have made man for yourself, and restless is the human heart until it comes to rest in you." Augustine was not inventing this notion, but merely confirming it from his own experience. The idea is thoroughly biblical, and is something we are all very conscious of.

Why is it that we are consistently and deeply aware of ‘something' that is missing from our lives? What is the ache inside for something lost which can never quite be found? Why, even in our moments of joy, are we conscious of a wistful longing that forever remains unfulfilled? How is it that after momentary pleasures this awareness returns to us? And why does nothing seem to truly satisfy?

Our text interprets this universal experience to us. God has placed within our heart a sense of eternity and a latent memory of something that is now lost to us, but which we cannot exist without - a relationship with the God who created us.

This emptiness can only be filled by returning to God through Jesus who is the Way the Truth and the Life.

For more on the Way, the Truth and the Life see here

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This article was previously published in the Falkirk Herald.

original photo : David Fellows