Sweet Affection

My little affections became big affections, and now those affections have homes and affections of their own!  That’s the way of children, but now I have new little affections – grandchildren.  I do not know who named these little late-in-life affections, but grand affections they are!

 

What are your affections?  Satisfying passionate cravings of Americans is big business!  Recently, I sat in a movie theatre watching the screen fill up with images of hot, buttered popcorn – it looked so real, I could almost smell it.  Part of me wanted to go get … popcorn!  When David was in Judah’s wilderness, he wrote: “O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1).  David’s words of thirst, faintness, dryness, and weariness, describe the deepest longing of the human soul – for his Creator and Sustainer.  Unfortunately, many today don’t even know their deepest longing so they fill their lives with temporal satisfactions … affections.  One who is in right relationship with The Father has affections rooted only in Him; all else pales in light of Who He is and how He gives genuine peace and contentment.  As I read this passage and considered passing longings of my own, I remembered hymn writer, Elisha A. Hoffman’s piercing words, “Have thy affections been nailed to the cross?  Is thy heart right with God?  Dost thou count all things for Jesus but loss?  Is thy heart right with God?”  It is my heart’s cry that God “… make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11).  Such affection is forever and of it we never grow tired.  Oh, Jesus Christ, Sweet Affection!