By lunchtime on Christmas Day 2024, I felt an unexpected but growing feeling of emptiness. The morning had been a nearly perfect observance of Christ's coming, complete with presents, abundant food, and time with family. Yet by the quiet hours of the afternoon, as the fog rolled over the mountain and onto our rental home porch, a fog seemed to roll into my soul as well.

Maybe it was the "letdown" from weeks of preparation and build-up: the celebration was ending – now, on to the long, cold winter. Or perhaps the challenges of the previous two months just caught up with me after the presents were unwrapped and the leftovers were in the fridge. Or it could have been that even though hope was born at Christmas, we still await its final fulfillment. And the wait is not always easy.

Becoming a Christian bridges the "infinite abyss" of humanity's separation from God, but it does not guarantee we will never stand at the edge of that abyss and feel its emptiness again. Even though Christ fills our God-shaped void at the point of salvation, there is still a chasm between where we are and where we will be, and we often sense that void.

The truth is that we will experience a regular onslaught of problems that cause us to feel longing, even on days that are meant to be joyful. Sometimes, the feeling hits us like air whooshing from a popped balloon, a sudden deflation. Other times, it creeps up on us, like that mountain fog on Christmas.

Although the underlying longing is for God, we often misidentify the need. Instead, we tend to turn to created things to satisfy the void. We find all kinds of things that seem to do the job for a minute: alcohol, screens, shopping, food, busyness, people, and more. Though not all are inherently bad, they quickly become problematic when expected to satisfy hunger that only God can. In other words, they become idols. And yet, we keep turning to such poor substitutes to fill soul needs, even when they only leave us feeling emptier.

Where can we find true relief and soul-satisfying fullness in the space between knowing Christ and being in God's presence forever? How can we resist the allure of worldly things to fill the gap?

God's answer to the void is always to add something good. In the beginning, God filled the void with his word. He brought light to the darkness, order to chaos, and life from nothingness, all by the power of his word. Later, God filled the man-created chasm between us and him with His living Word, Jesus. And now, in the space between Christ's first and second comings, God has given us his Holy Spirit and his word, the Bible, to fill us.

The effect of reading and meditating on the Bible is satisfaction through the power of the Holy Spirit because it reveals the incarnate Word, Jesus. As we regularly take in God's word and "write it on our hearts," the hunger we experience in our human frames is met in Christ, and we are fed. No worldly comfort can satisfy us like God's word when we feel empty.

And yet, despite knowing the benefits of the Bible, we resist filling up on it. Maybe because taking in the Bible does not always lead to the immediate (but false) sense of relief we might experience from eating something decadent or partaking in mind-numbing activities.

In times of depletion, we want a quick fix. In our lowest moments, we crave instant gratification. Although God's word can lead to immediate relief, it takes regular consumption to fully realize its benefits. He calls it daily bread, not monthly or yearly bread.

A few years ago, I started eating yogurt in the evenings when I craved dessert. Filled with nuts and fruit, it is surprisingly satisfying. I began replacing other unhealthy foods with better choices, like olive oil instead of butter and lemon in my tea instead of sugar. When I compared the lab work from my annual physicals over time, I was surprised to see how much my numbers improved. The good food mysteriously benefited me in my complex vascular networks and the hidden recesses of my digestive system.

That is how the Bible works in us. When we take it in regularly – reading it, meditating on it, praying it – God does mysterious work in the deep corners of our hearts and minds. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he adds something good to us. He shines light in our darkest moments, calms and orders our chaotic thoughts, and fills our empty places.

I know this is true because I experience it regularly. On Christmas night, as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, feeling so inexplicably empty on such a joyous day, God's word filled the void. Not the food I had eaten, the family I loved, the generous presents, or the beauty of the mountain, as good as those things were. Only God's word met the spiritual needs underlying my feelings of emptiness.

As his words came to mind, I prayed them back: "Lord, you are my Shepherd, I shall not want…”

Just as adding good things to our diet diminishes the lure of unhealthy foods, the Bible diminishes the power of poor substitutes to tempt us. Whenever we sense the gap between "now and not yet,” God's word is always available to fill the chasm; our only task is to receive it. And when God's word goes out into the void, it does not return empty.

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Cover photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels