“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him…” –Luke 15:20

It is amazing how many people do not feel close to God! God seems distant and not interested in our personal affairs. It seems forever that we have heard from Him, or He has heard from us. Once we may have trusted each other. Now, our concern is what God might do if we were to check in with Him.

This distance was not our intentional strategy. We have been too busy with life! We never decided to leave God. We just seemed to wander off. One day we awakened to a life without God’s blessing and guidance. Now we feel alone and helpless. The comfortable fellowship we once knew is now a distant memory.

Our life without God is not what we really desire. We may defend our position in life but deep down, we feel like something is missing. There is an emptiness that is not being satisfied with friends, fun, and all our possessions. We change jobs and change towns, but the same troubling spirit moves with us. Life seems to be like a hamster running in the cage. We are making noise and running hard, but going nowhere.

We dream of starting over. We know what we need to leave. We know what feels like home. In our sense of frustration, the options are simple. The problem is reversing our direction and changing our lifestyle. They say, “You can never go back!” Is it possible that there is no going back? Is it possible that we must lie in the bed we have made?

So, we decide to plan what we can do to bargain with God. We would like to pay back what we have lost, but the price is too great! The debt will never be satisfied by us. We would like to justify where we have been, but we know that no decent human being would have stooped as low as we have. We would like to compare ourselves to others, but we know God sees us standing alone. Comparisons prove to be excuses, not justifications. The best we seem to offer is to give what is left of who we are.

Then we make a big step. We decide to face God! We realize how desperately we need Him and decide that we are turning to God regardless of His response. We know we deserve to be thrown out. We hope we could find a God who is big enough to forgive and allow a second chance. So, we swallow our pride, bury our excuses, and begin the journey back to a God we miss in our current situation.

It is when we make this step that we learn an awesome lesson! We learn that God has been looking for us to come back. He has forgiven us of our failures. He has continued to call us His own and loves us as He always has. He has kept a homecoming plan ready to be implemented. He sees us before we see Him. He initiates our meeting, but it is with embrace and restoration, not inquisition. He publicly announces His pride that we have returned. He is unapologetic that we are reinstated. The greatest lesson to learn is that with God, there is always an opened door.

Maybe it is time for you to check with the Lord and see if you can come home!

Dr. John A. Temple is pastor of Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church, 4032 Poplar Springs Drive, Meridian. Visit the church website at www.psdbc.org.