Liebesträume . . .
German for “a dream of love”. We live with Liebesträume–the dream of love. We dream of love as easily as we breath air.
“In 1850 Franz Liszt published the musical score for a set of three solo piano works (S.541/R.211) titled Liebesträume. Originally the three Liebesträume were conceived as songs for one voice and a piano (a German, “lieder” ) after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath.” (Wikipedia)
But the concept of “dreams of love” is as perennial and runs through all cultures like blood runs through the human genome. There is a longing in all of us for companionship, for an all-enveloping-love that overwhelms us and that we hope will fulfill and somehow complete us. “Somehow complete us” is pretty vague but it exists in all of us.
Another German word is a synonym or close cousin, the word Sehnsucht. Sehnsucht translates to “longing”, “desire”, “yearning”, even “craving”. “Some psychologists [and philosophers] use the word to represent thoughts and feelings about all facets of life that are unfinished or imperfect, paired with a yearning for ideal alternative experiences.” (Wikipedia with a bracketed addition)
I first ran across both words in an undergraduate philosophy class at the University of Maryland. Later, I ran into Sehnsucht again in C.S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. Lewis uses the word to express the longing for some unknown joy, and it is a central idea not only in many of his books but also a center pivot for much of his apologetic work.
Sometimes an Analogy is Helpful.
Human beings have stomachs. Stomachs mean that we are meant to process food, which further means that there exists on the planet we inhabit, food that can satisfy our need to process food. It doesn’t mean that we won’t starve to death! But it does mean that somewhere in the world we inhabit, there is a food source that could save our life. In a similar fashion, Sehnsucht and Liebesträume, our dreams of an all-enveloping-love, our longing and yearning and craving for a joy that nothing in our experience ever fully satisfies, is a pointer, a sign-post that there is something/someone who can satisfy our longing.
For years, much to the chagrin of my children I suspect, I have said just before we prayed over a meal, “Thank God for tastebuds!” It was a fun way to remind my own soul that the creation of tastebuds is a gift from God. But it also was an echo of the Liebesträume and Sehnsucht, a recognition that we live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28) and that God has made us for more than this life.
May all your hope for happiness, for joy, for Liebesträume and Sehnsucht, all your longing, and desire and craving for an all-enveloping-love point you and lead you and compel you to run to Him who said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And may you give Him the whole of your heart so that He can give you Himself and all the joy for which your heart longs.
Update: A song expressing the longing for more.
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