Traveling with a Sojourner - Mid-week Epistle

Are You Going in the Right Direction?
Have you ever been lost? I always remember the first time at a new appointment and we would have the challenge of not becoming lost going from the parsonage to the church. After just a few days of travel, it became a familiar path for us. And the adventure lost some of its thrill the more we traveled the now familiar road home.
Let me tell you another story that comes from feeling lost. During the height of one of the shopping seasons in a large mall, a family became separated. The four year old son wandered off, and when he was finally missed, the husband and wife both looked at each other with that "I-thought-you-were-watching-him" look. That look quickly changed to panic when they began to realize the masses of people crowding the mall.
They started retracing their steps. The little boy was nowhere to be found. Minutes passed. They showed pictures to security guards and storekeepers. Nothing! Their hearts began to pound and the anxiety level began to reach new heights. Nearly a half hour went by, and they were beginning to fear the worse.
Then came an announcement over the public address system: "Will Mr. and Mrs. Johnson please come to the manager's office at Mall Office? Your little boy is here."
They ran through the mall, up the escalator three stairs at a time and into the manager's office. The son was there sipping a soft drink the staff had given him. He was smiling and oblivious to his having frightened the parents so. It was only when he saw the look in their eyes, the look of fear mixed with relief that he began to cry. The truth of it was he didn't know he was lost until he was found.
That's often the way it is when people discover that they have been the object of God's searching, redemptive love in Christ. Somehow the vision of the Crucified One let's us know we have been found even before we knew we were lost. Now isn't that a great way to be found?

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, you are the finder of the lost sheep when you gave us the shepherd. Come into our broken lives this day and give us the assurance of the one who can bring us home once again whom we call Jesus, the Christ.
Let us witness His miraculous power as He brings light into our darkness and joy into our sorrows. Let Him bind the wounds of our hearts and remove the sores of our painful existence and then we can truly bring others - just as He has brought us - to Your saving grace. We ask this in the power of Your Son's promise to be with us even to the end of the age. Amen.

This has been Rev. Jim Massey. Next week we will talk about leftovers.