What Christianity says about longing and hope

Christian writing about longing mostly points forwards. The New Testament ends with a one-word request, come, and much of what leads up to it describes people waiting for something they have been promised and do not yet have. Hope and waiting are the words this tradition actually uses for the feeling. These nine concepts from the library's Christian collection cover both halves: the hunger, and what is said about how it gets answered.

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger for Righteousness

The beatitude uses hunger and thirst rather than preference. What is wanted is righteousness, both personal and the world set right, and the promise attached is that this particular appetite is fed.

Gospel of Matthew 5:6

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Grief is called blessed, which reads oddly until you notice what is being grieved: losses, and also the state of things. What is promised is comfort, not the removal of the grief.

Gospel of Matthew 5:4

The Pearl of Great Price

A merchant finds one pearl and sells everything else to buy it. The story is less about sacrifice being noble than about what happens to a person's other wants once they have seen something worth more.

Gospel of Matthew 13:45-46

Abiding in Christ

Jesus uses a vine and its branches. Longing here is not a distance to be crossed but a connection to be kept, and the fruit is described as a result of staying rather than straining.

Gospel of John 15:5

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

Paul writes that this hope does not put people to shame. His chain runs from suffering to perseverance to character to hope, which makes hope what is left standing at the end rather than the mood you begin with.

Romans 5:5

The Blessed Hope

The Christian life is described here as waiting, and the waiting is called blessed. It is also said to change present conduct, which is the test of whether it is real.

Titus 2:13

New Heavens and New Earth

The vision at the end of Revelation is a renewed heaven and earth, not an escape from either. Matter is kept and repaired rather than discarded.

Revelation 21:1

God Will Wipe Away Every Tear

Tears are wiped away by hand, one face at a time. The image is domestic on purpose, so that the comfort promised reads as personal rather than administrative.

Revelation 21:4

Maranatha - Come, Lord Jesus

The Bible's last pages carry one of the oldest Christian prayers, a single request: come. It is a request and not a report, which means the book closes in longing.

Revelation 22:20

Waiting is not treated as neutral in these passages. It is meant to alter how a person lives now, which puts it closer to a practice than to a mood. And the last word is still a request, which the tradition has never tried to tidy up.