What fills an empty nest?
The yearning for affection is a prayer that points us to God’s grace.
How often do we feel that love has been withdrawn from us, that something is missing, that we are left with an aching emptiness? The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, no stranger to abandonment and loss, speaks to these feelings in her profound spiritual interpretation of the line “Give us this day our daily bread” from the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 17).
The yearning for affection is a prayer that points us to God’s grace as the divine nourishment that satisfies and sustains. It assures us that what appears to be lack is never a spiritual fact because God, Love, the creator of all, creates no voids.
I felt this need deeply one day when looking at a family photo taken at my daughter’s high school graduation. Soon after that happy day, she had gotten a job and an apartment of her own, naturally stepping into adult life. There had been no conflict—only the normal transition of a child expressing her innate sense of independence. We’ve remained close and loving, even across the miles. Still, when I looked at that picture years later, a sadness stirred within me. Life hadn’t unfolded the way I had imagined.
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