Health & Fitness
It Seems We've All Lost a Child For a Moment
Losing a child -- even for a moment -- is scary and leaves us feeling powerless.
Last Saturday, my wife and I were enjoying a shopping adventure at the SuperMall in Auburn. Who doesn’t need a great pair of flip-flops for $1!? Anyway, as we were going from store to store, shopping with our four children, our 3-year, 10-month-old thought we exited a store, when in fact we were at the register.
My wife asked for her by name and she did not come. I went to the back of the store looking for her, and she was not there. After my 8-year-olds did a check of the store, we realized she was gone. Seconds seemed like minutes as we began to search from store to store and in the main walkway of the mall. It was such a feeling of powerlessness and fear all at once.
Just days earlier I had overheard this same daughter, while playing with some kids at our house, exclaim how her daddy always keeps her safe -- but at this moment I was powerless!
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I had yet to reach the panic phase when one of the employees of the store we were in ran out holding up her phone and proclaiming that our daughter may be at guest services.
I ran straight there and sure enough, a nice man had noticed her looking for her mom and dad as she walked down the mall, and escorted her to the guest-services table, thank the Lord. That was the longest five minutes of my life!
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Since Saturday, we have told this story to many friends, and in every situation it seems like the people all have a story of when they lost a child and the measures they went through to track that child down. In each case, they seemed powerless, yet so grateful when they their child was recovered.
If we have this sense of passion, pain and fulfillment, imagine how the Father to the Fatherless, God in heaven, must feel when we become lost. No wonder there is so much emphasis placed on the redemption of the lost in the Gospel and the New Testament.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost, not scold them. It’s the imagery of a parent running to embrace their lost child. That’s God’s desire for us -- that we come home!
What would have mall security done if I would have beaten my child for getting lost Saturday? Can you imagine how devastating that would have been?
God didn’t send His Son to give us a Holy Spanking … but embrace and rescue.