Timelessness in Gathering

Have you ever had a weekend that you felt lasted forever, yet was gone too soon? A couple days that filled you with such joy, and at the end such longing, that you felt you would burst?

I had the honor of joining such an event last week. A writer’s group that I’ve been a part of since probably 2020 finally met in person this month at a park in Tennessee, and it was glorious.

There are so many things that happened, but there was one feeling that stuck out the most; time no longer mattered. I was there with people who were slowly going from friendly online bubbles to living, breathing friends. It didn’t matter if it was noon or nine pm, time didn’t matter.

Until it did. The final night, the reality of time came seeping back. Knowing we may not see each other in person again for years, or maybe ever, filled those final hours with sehnsucht, a mingling of joy, grief, and longing that dragged you to depths of feeling you may not have known existed.

Even now, part of that feeling lingers on. A reminder that this is not all there is. Several of my friends who were there have blogged about this; of how for us there, for a couple short days, it felt as if Heaven touched Earth, that companionship like we experienced is marvelous and important, that a part of those experiences will stay with us forever, and that the fellowship we had was but a temporary, muted taste of that we will have in the Kingdom of God.

In light of these, I feel that I have very little to add. Perhaps the beauty and longing are still too close to my heart to be put into words. However that may be, I know a part of me has changed from the experience, and is still forming and grasping and learning from those glorious days.

Whoever reads this, I want you to remember this: Hold onto moments like these. They don’t come very often. I think it’s these experiences that we can hold onto when the trials come, reminding ourselves that as followers of and believers in Jesus Christ, days are ahead better than even these.