An Eschatology of Lovesickness

"But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart....  Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.  Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.  Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you."
John 16:6, 19-22

"For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now...."
Romans 8: 22

"The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?  But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."
Matthew 9:15

"If you find my beloved, 
As to what you will tell him;
For I am lovesick."
Song of Solomon 5:8  


No religion, no philosophy, no set of ideas, institutions (religious and non-religious), no way of thought can compare to the aching heart of one who misses the presence of the Son of God on earth.  Have we grieved for His absence?  

Have we been in labor?  What are we birthing? 

The bride roams the dark streets of the city, desperate with love, thirsting to just catch one glimpse of her beloved.  To anyone and everyone she says, "If you find my beloved...  If you catch one glimpse of Him that I do not see, tell Him that I am grieving, tell Him that I miss Him, that there is a hole in my chest gasping for Him.... Tell Him, it is death without Him."  

And isn't the earth under this curse of "death without Him?"  Has not all of the Creator's life giving creation been under the groans and sufferings of the pain of futility; the pain of death.  Yet, if we miss Him, if we desire more than anything else to look into His physical eyes, there is a love that is "strong as death" (SS 8:6).  How is it stronger than death?  This love will bring Him back, and "the last enemy that will be abolished is death" (1 Cor. 15:26).

When the world rejoices, we will lament, for we know that nothing is right until He comes.  May our joy be made full when the season comes, the dark night is over and we see Him again.  May our joy be made full in this hope and no other hope.  This is the blessed hope (Titus 2:13).  Our "joy will be made full" if all our hope is for this day - the Day of the Lord when He comes back for a groaning and lovesick Bride.

Our humble King will return because of love.  Do we miss His loving arms?  Do we groan?