Luke 15:20b “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
There’s an old adage that you never really appreciate something until it’s gone. A little more than a week ago, my wife and I experienced that firsthand.
It didn’t seem all that serious at first. I sat down at the computer, and the mouse responded, but I couldn’t get any programs to open. At the time, I was a Windows user. So I did what all Windows users do: rebooted. Unfortunately, Windows didn’t come back up. I tried every way I knew, and still nothing. And I kept trying, hoping that somehow, the next reboot would work.
My initial reaction would normally be the dread about my data being lost. Fortunately, it had not been too long since my last backup (I had learned that lesson, the HARD way). The real inconvenience, though, was that we were without a computer.
Whether it’s me checking the news and weather in the morning, or Pam checking her email during the day, it’s an inconvenience when we can’t sit down at the computer as we normally would. Until we were up and running, there was a void in our lives, however insignificant.
Computers are one thing, but the voids left by the people in our lives are much more considerable. When your husband, wife, mom or dad is out of town, you might sense an emptiness while that person is away. Or perhaps you have a friend that has moved to another town. When you can no longer hang out like you used to, you notice how much you miss that time together.
There’s a phrase I’ve heard that perhaps you’ve heard as well: There’s a God-shaped void in all of us. There’s a longing, a craving, in each of us that cannot be satisfied except by Him. But have you ever considered that maybe God longs for us, too? He has a spot in his heart that only we can fill. And I don’t mean “we” collectively, but he has separate empty spots for you, and you, and you, and me.
Whether we’ve only been away overnight, or for a week or month, or longer, we can call out to him now. He is yearning for us just as much as we are for him.
Let’s not make him wait any longer. This time, our reboot will work.
Devotionally Speaking 