Carolyn Arends: Reaching

There's a time I can recall
Four years old and three feet tall
Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar
And both were out of reach

And later on in my high school
It seemed to me a little cruel
How the right words to say always seemed to stay
Just out of reach

Well, I should not have thought it strange
That growing causes growing pains
'Cause the more we learn, the more we know
We don't know anything

But still it seems a tragic fate
Living with this quiet ache
The constant strain for what remains
Just out of reach

We are reaching for the future
We are reaching for the past
And no matter what we have we reach for more
We are desperate to discover
What is just beyond our grasp
But maybe that's what Heaven is for

There are times I can't forget
Dressed up in my Sunday best
Trying not to squirm and to maybe learn
A bit of what the preacher preached

And later lying in the dark
I felt a stirring in my heart
And though I longed to see what could not be seen
I still believed

I guess I shouldn't think it odd
Until we see the face of God
The yearning deep within us tells us
There's more to come

So when we taste of the divine
It leaves us hungry every time
For one more taste of what awaits
When Heaven's Gates are reached

We are reaching for the future
We are reaching for the past
And no matter what we have, we reach for more
We are desperate to discover
What is just beyond our grasp
But maybe that's what Heaven is for
I believe that's what Heaven is for

I believe that's what Heaven is for

There's a time I can recall
Four years old and three feet tall
Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar
And both were out of reach