I was with my Dad and brother. I was around 5 or 6 years
old. We were in Sears at Northpark Mall. I was following them, but looking at
the new Matchbox car my Dad had just bought me. I looked up and they were not
in front of me. Oh No! Where did they go! I started walking fast to catch up. Surely
they were just around the corner. No! They were nowhere in sight. I had no idea
where they went, which direction they went, or the next store in our shopping
adventure. I walked around the mall for days looking for them (Okay, maybe not
days). I couldn’t find them. I would never see my family or friends again. I
was doomed to stay in the mall for the rest of my life. How would I survive? That
was it, I couldn’t take it anymore. I stopped right in front of Woolworth’s (a
store that you probably never heard of because it’s old) sat down in the middle
of the mall and cried. I didn’t just cry, I balled like a …well, like a lost 5
year old. A young couple who were in Woolworth’s heard me crying and came out
to find out what was wrong. I told them that my mean Dad and brother didn’t
love me anymore and had abandoned me. I told them how they devised a cruel plan
to buy me a toy so that I would be distracted while they sneakily ran away, and
now I was going to have to live in the mall for the rest of my life, and my
name was Hansel and I didn’t know where my sister, Gretel, was …wait, that’s
not how it went. Oh yeah, I just told them I was lost. They comforted me and
told me they would help me find them. About that time a mall security guard
(no, his name was not Paul Blart) came driving up in a golf cart. They told him
what was going on. He put me in his security golf cart and told me we would
drive around looking for my Dad and brother. It wasn’t long before my Dad
spotted me and realized he was caught and would have to take me home. Just
kidding. He called my name and came running to the police security golf cart,
very happy to have finally found me. He and my brother had been looking for ME a
long time.
Madison knows this feeling from when she got lost at Medieval
Times. She was distracted. I thought she was with your mother, but no, I had LEFT
her. She was afraid and crying, and a lady from one of the shops came out to
help her. She even got a free toy out of the ordeal. And I know how my Dad felt
when I discovered she was gone. It was horrible! As soon as I realized she was
gone I was going to do whatever it took to find her and get her back, and the
joy I felt when we found her was beyond description.
Funny how we can get distracted by “shiny things” and lose
sight of The Lord. We can even focus too much on things The Lord has given us. The
good thing is He never loses sight of us (Jer. 31:10, “…He will watch over his
people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”). Unlike my Dad and brother, He
always knows where we are. He knows immediately when we are “lost”, and will do
whatever it takes to get us to look up and follow Him. He might even send other
people into our lives such as a young couple, or a cool security mall cop with
a cool, police security golf cart, to help us find our way back to Him (John
10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”).
The best thing to do is never take our eyes off of Him and
then we won’t get distracted (1 Cor. 7:35, “I am saying this for your benefit,
not to place a limitation on you, but so that without distraction you may give
notable and constant service to the Lord.”) and become lost, but when we do (and
we will) we need to immediately look up and search for Him (Jer. 12:13,
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”). We’ll
find Him right there beside us.
Love Ya,
Dad
Dad
