It’s confession time. I only recently saw The Greatest Showman. I know what you’re saying, I’m late to the party and I get it. You’re right. I am. The funny thing is that I actually like musicals and I genuinely wanted to see this one as soon as it came out. I just never did. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about it.

For me, this movie was all about the music. The story was good, most of the characters were well developed and the premise believable and yet larger than life. But the music that’s where I got pulled in. I’ve been wondering over the last few weeks why these songs speak to my heart in such a powerful way and I finally came to this conclusion: The human heart will always speak the language of longing.

Think about the songs of The Greatest Showman, the message of every one of them communicates a longing for something. The longing for a better life, longing for acceptance, longing to belong, to be loved, to be free. Every song shouts the message that deep down we all know. This life is marked by longing.

We all have longings and often we can feel frustrated when those longings go unmet for what feels like an eternity. We can even feel frustrated when one longing is met only to be replaced by a new one. Are we doomed to live in this state of longing forever? Well, yes, but not for eternity.

The truth is that the Lord has written this longing on our hearts and it is there for a reason. We aren’t supposed to feel “comfortable” in this life or in this world. We were made for more. We were made for more than humanity and more than. earthly existence. We were made for eternity. Ecclesiastes tells us that God has, “put eternity in the hearts of men.” There is this longing to be with Jesus that can’t be satisfied by anything of this world. Romans 8:19 goes so far as to say that even, “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.”

So, are we destined to long forever? Well yes, as long as we’re here. But the important thing to know is that there is a creator waiting for us and drawing us toward himself who shares in that longing to be reconciled with us. Who made a way for us to be reconciled to him and finally put our longings to rest when we are reunited with him in heaven. Until then, here’s to great anticipation!