I get homesick very easily. There is something about the mountains, the dry climate, and the great plains that make me feel as though I’m home. I remember I was on a college trip in the midwest. My mother, my sister, and I were looking at colleges that I was interested in and were spending some time in the midwest taking in the sights. But I remember that after the last visit I looked around and thought to myself, “this is not where I belong, I need to get back home.” So I returned and ended up picking a college that is 45 minutes from where my parents live. 

     When I was removed from the Colorado landscape, I was off. I was craving to get back home to where the mountains were, and also my family. In Psalm 42, the Psalmist describes his craving for God in a very similar way. 

    “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1) For some context, the Psalmist was part of a group of people called the Sons of Korah, who had been driven out of Israel because of their father’s deeds and as such were removed from the presence of God which rested in the Tabernacle.

    Our desire for God ought to be as natural and essential to us as water. As the deer pants to be satisfied, nourished, and quenched, so we should pant to be satisfied, nourished, and quenched spiritually by the presence of God. 

    I encourage you to read Psalm 42 today and ask yourself how much you need God. How much do you hunger; how much do you thirst for him? I promise you that if you wish to hunger after God more, ask him and he will give it to you.