Lament. “Our Hearts Are Longing.”

December 2023

This piece was created after listening to an advent sermon on Bathsheba and lament.

The Lord used this sermon to crack open my hurting heart in a time where I was longing for joy and to make sense of the battle of my mind. It helped facilitate the directing of my heart and my unanswered questions to God.

Lament: “an articulation of pain to the Lord”; “a prayer of pain that leads to trust”; “the wailing of the heart before a God who hears, who listens, and who responds to our cries”

My name, “Jayden”, means “heard by God” and I needed to realize that just because I couldn’t make sense of my pain it didn’t mean He couldn’t hear me. I needed to spend time with the Lord in true lament and surrender and recognition of who He is. And so I did. I came home and immediately got out a canvas and this piece was born.

This piece depicts advent candles. All but one has burnt out. We are still waiting. He came, and we are waiting for His return.

“The pain is real, is the promise true

Will He come again, will He see us through

Our hearts are longing

We’re waiting for the peace that comes when the final victory is won and the joy that comes when all things are made new

Creation groans to see the day when hope chases the night away And the love that has made all sad things untrue

In our hearts we keep believing Jesus is the reason we are waiting”

We Are Waiting- Eternal Worship

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.”
Psalm 139:11-12