“I’ve missed you.”
Our lives have been crazy lately, and we have been traveling two different directions for nearly a month. Sickness with my husband’s family, and him being the only living relative, has forced him to continually be the one to travel to help with the family. We have rarely even seen each other over the past month, but even through it all, we trust God, knowing that this will not last forever, it is just a phase that God will help us through.
So, when he walked through the front door, I looked down at my Garfield pajamas and my fuzzy slippers. Oh great! If I had known he was coming home, I would have fixed myself up to look nice for him. I would have freshened up my make-up, making sure my eyelashes looked nice and full. I would have made sure I wore something that made me look “Ooooo!!! La La!!!” I would have fixed my hair all pretty and worn my big sexy earrings. I thought, Fabulous! He probably thinks I look all frumpy!!!
But rather, to my surprise, my husband walked into the kitchen where I, 
kitchen dish rag still in my hand, stood over a foamy sink full of dirty dishes. He walked up behind me, slid his strong arms around my waist, tickled a soft kiss on my neck, and whispered in my ear, “I’ve missed you.” An uncontrollable giddy smile slid across my teeth.
I quickly rinsed the suds from my hands and dried them on the dish towel next to me. I turned and slid my arms up his chest and locked my fingers behind his neck of his six and half foot frame. I gazed up into his eyes. “I’ve missed you too,” I replied just before I began to apologize for my appearance.
“You look good to me,” he replied as his big dreamy brown eyes stayed locked on mine. I saw the longing in his eyes, and I realized then, he didn’t care about my messy bun in my hair. He didn’t care that my eyelashes were no longer perky. He could not care less that I was not ornamented by my sexy earrings or that I was decorated by fuzzy slippers. He just loved me and wanted to be with me.
Suddenly, he leaned down and passionately kissed me in a way that let me know that there is no one else in the world that is as important to him as I am. I tingled from head to toe, and suddenly, I no longer cared what I looked like either.
So often, when we come to God, we care about what we are dressed like. We feel like we can’t even go to church if we don’t wear beautiful clothes. I once asked a friend why she didn’t come to church. She replied, “I don’t have church clothes.” What exactly are “church clothes”? God cares about what’s inside your heart, not what you place on top of your skin.
So often when we come to God, we care that we are not good enough or are too dirty to come to him, so we try to clean up our own sins. We want to come to him after we stop smoking or get ourselves off of pornography or drugs. We want to come to him after we stop cussing, struggling with anger, or start “reading the Bible again,” but Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” (i.e.: Come to Me, and let me clean you up.)
God doesn’t care about what we are dressed like, what we’ve been into, or whether we’re dirty. What he cares about is that we come to him. If we look up into His eyes, we’ll see that He’s longingly gazing upon us. He just wants to be with us, and He’ll accept us just the way we are. If we’ll draw into His embrace, we will be transformed—simply by being near Him, and suddenly, we won’t care about what we were like before. We’ll be near the One that wants us, and we’ll hear Him say, “I’ve missed you.”
HappygoMisty 