The Emptiness Within

As we journey through this thing called life
our days are filled with joy and strife -
with good, bad and sad times all without number,
while deep within us there is a great hunger;
a longing so strong; a consuming need -
for there's something we need to be fully complete.

So we search and we look in each cranny and nook;
in each person and game and movie and book.
We search very far, and we search very near -
we even search in places which we should fear.
What is it? Where is it? Oh, what could it be?
Help me, please help me, oh help me to see.

I struggle so hard to lead a good life,
But still my life seems empty and rife
with problems and hardships which I must endure;
with false joy and laughter for which there's no cure.
I feel so empty: the longing's so strong
and I know that there's something desperately wrong.

Do you perhaps know what I need most of all?
If someone can hear me please answer my call!
Who, what and where in Creation is there,
this someone or something who's willing to share
my whole life with me and to be my best friend;
who will not forsake me around the next bend?

The Answer, of course, is not hard to find -
for there is Someone true, loving and kind
waiting to fill the void deep within
the moment He frees us from death and from sin
for though our first parents from Grace did fall,
we can still hear the echo of our Maker's call:

"Come closer, my children, come closer to Me,
so that you may be Mine for eternity -
to live in the light of My love all your days
while My Spirit will teach you to walk in My ways.
And if someone should ask how you this came to know,
Then tell them the Bible told you so."

This poem was a finalist in the May 2008 poetry contest