Do you remember that scene from the movie, Cast Away, when Tom Hanks’ character loses Wilson? You know the one, it takes place after he’s struggled to make it off the island, a huge storm nearly rips his tiny little raft apart, and in the midst of the storm Wilson gets knocked off the boat. When Tom Hanks wakes up the next morning he suddenly realizes that his beloved volleyball, and ‘companion’ of four years, is drifting away, and though he tries desperately, in the end, he can only watch Wilson disappear from sight.
I think a lot of relationships in life are kind of like that. You can be the best of friends for years, hanging out together, sharing life experiences. Then life gets busy, as it usually does, until one day you wake up and your friend is just…gone.
Did you know that the same thing can happen in your relationship with God?
Sometimes we forget to pay attention to Him, our lives get busy and we lose focus on nurturing our relationship with Him. Our Bible readings get pushed to the side, we forget to pray, we let our walk with God take the back burner to our run-of-the-mill everyday life. We prop God up in a corner of our lives, and forget He’s there, until one day we turn around and He’s just…gone.
It’s at this point that we have to realize that God wasn’t the one drifting away from us. He’s still there, waiting, on the raft.
We are Wilson.
Whether we’ve been knocked out of God’s boat by life’s circumstances or we’ve jumped ship following our own plans and dreams, at some point we are going to need to turn around and stop drifting.
The good news is that even if we have drifted away from God, He is always willing to take us back. But unlike Tom Hanks’ character, He won’t stop searching for us, and He will never give us up. His love is unwavering, unchanging, and always available. All that He requires is for us to turn back to Him.
The Bible says it this way, in Jeremiah 24:6-7…
“My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”
Listen to today’s post here!