One time after a bad day at school, I decided to run away from home. School was the problem in my mind and home was my favorite place. That sixth-grade teacher was what made me run away. But I have to reflect that I often must have made her think of taking up another profession. But I could not just run away from school because Dad and Mom would only send me back. I really had no idea where I was going except “away.” Things went fine for the first hours. I lived in a small city, so I knew the way around. I was not lost. As the hours went past, uneasiness grew. Hunger being a great motivator, I began debating with myself whether to go home and face the music. It was beginning to get dark as I walked down a road just outside of town. Headlights of a car fast approached. A startled cat ran out from the ditch in front of me and tried to dash across the road. The front wheel of the car struck the cat and flipped it up in the air. The poor thing’s lifeless body landed right at my feet. Time to go home.
When I got back to my street, I saw several men in front of the house talking with my Dad. I sneaked around by the back yard and along to the front of the house where I hid behind a shrub by the front door. “I think he will probably come home after a while,” Dad said. He thanked the men and they left. I could hear my Mom crying for her lost boy. I was not lost, but neither was I “found.” I was hiding. But as far as Mom was concerned, I was lost. Finally, I came out to receive whatever consequences were going to fall from Dad. To my relief, tearful Mom gathered me into her arms and took me into the house, drew a bath for me and washed me like a baby. She told me she loved me and asked me never to do such a thing again. With tears she thanked Jesus over and over again.
Jesus told numerous stories about finding lost people. It was His mission as Savior of the world. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”[i]The Bible word which has an English translation “lost” has a more intense meaning than something that is not found. It also can be translated “destroyed” or “perished.” The word when translated “lost” has the sense of being “totally” or “irretrievably lost.”[ii] Jesus has come to do what many think is impossible. To bring a new birth to people and to bring them into a relationship with Him. When someone receives Jesus in repentance and faith, they are “found” and no longer “lost.” They now they have eternal life and will not perish.
Many people are insulted or become angry when told that they are lost. They know where they are. Some have a definite plan for their life. Most are living life the way they want. But like an eleven-year-old boy who ran away from his family, people are lost, not because they do not know where they are, but because they are not in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. Come out from walking in the darkness into the light and be “found.”
George Cargill
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[i] Luke 19:10
[ii] p 230, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, Zodhiates – AMG Publishers – 1994