Searching for Us

“For the  Son of Man came to seek  and to save  the lost.”  Luke 19:10 (NIV)

I heard the high-pitched call several times  and wondered who was making such a racket in our usually quiet neighborhood.  Shortly afterward, a car came around the circle.  It stopped at  my driveway,  and  a woman leaned out the window and asked whether I had seen a small dog in the street. I said I hadn’t seen her puppy, but promised to keep an eye out  for it. She kept driving around, calling out the puppy’s name in a desperate voice. The neighbor searched as long as it took, and when I saw her the next day, she was happy to report that she’d found her lost dog.

Have you ever been lost?  It’s not a pleasant situation to be in. I sometimes humor myself and tell people that I’m an expert at being lost. If I try to find my way to a location for the first time, I’m all confusion, often ignoring the directions, taking wrong turns, driving into side streets and asking help from  anyone with a kind face,  even stopping at service stations for help. When I moved to my present home, I got to know every service station in the surrounding area. Needless to say, in all of this lostness, no one was looking for me.

My affliction is that  of a directionally lost person, but the spiritually lost fare no better. It’s so easy to be lost in this world, taking wrong turns,  failing to read the signs that point to the  more abundant life,  going down dead-end paths to success, following incorrect directions from well-meaning people. Our text for today suggests that it was just for such people that Jesus came into the world.

Lostness is not new. It has been happening since the beginning of life  on this planet. Adam and Eve got lost in a garden. Who would expect such a thing?  God called out to them to let them hear His voice and find the right direction. And  Jesus came into the world to give hope to  the hopelessly lost. But beyond providing salvation into a heavenly kingdom, He saves people here and now from their daily lostness, whether  in their workplace,  in their homes, or  even in their  churches.  He finds them  and joyfully sets them on the right path. And those of us  who have been rescued must keep an eye out for the lost  among us and let them know that Someone is searching for them.

PRAYER: Lord, when I tend to go off  into paths of my own, help me to hear your voice and promptly respond to  your call.

Always,

Judith

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“I once was lost,
But now I’m found.”
(John Newton)