LATE ONE AFTERNOON Alan went on a hike across the fields with some of his friends. He found lots of interesting things to stop to look at along the way. He was so busy looking at the birds and flowers that he didn’t realize he had left his friends. He was all alone.
He called to his friends, but there was no answer. As he wandered around he was getting scared. He wasn’t sure just where he was, and he could tell it was getting late. Soon the sky began to get dark. He was really afraid now, because he was lost and he knew it. Where should he go? It was an awful feeling.
Suddenly Alan saw a light glimmering off in the distance. That meant one thing to him people! He headed for the light as fast as he could. But in the growing darkness he didn’t see a row of bushes as high as his waist until they were right in front of him. I can’t stop, he thought, I won’t stop I’ll have to jump as high as I can and go over them.
What Alan didn’t know was that on the other side of that row of bushes was a muddy creek! Backing up for a running start, he jumped and cleared the bushes... but landed right in the middle of that muddy creek! He cried out, “I can’t swim!” Frantically he managed to scramble out of that wet blackness, and then he started to run again.
He made his way toward the light, puffing and panting. But as he ran he was thinking, I wish it was someone’s job to always look for lost kids and find them!
Someone really is looking for lost people, and He really does care about lost boys and girls. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He came to find and save those who are lost in their sins. “The Son of man [the Lord Jesus] is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10).
Finally, poor Alan reached the light. It was a house. He stood on the porch, cold, wet and crying, and pounded on the door.
Soon someone opened the door and saw at once that Alan was lost and scared. The kind people took him inside and called his father and mother. Then they cleaned him up and gave him something to drink.
Oh, how wonderful Alan felt when he knew he was no longer lost, but safe! Jesus said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee.” Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15). And He will wash you clean of your sins so that you will be whiter than snow. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:77Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7). He also promises to give you the water of everlasting life so that you will never be thirsty again. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:1414But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14).
Those kind people not only helped Alan by taking him in and caring for him until his parents came, but they told him about the Lord Jesus Christ and His love, and that He was seeking the lost to save them and take them to heaven too.
Alan remembered that awful experience of being lost and how those kind people befriended him. He also realized that he was lost in another way in his sins. He soon came to the Lord Jesus to be washed from his sins and to drink of that water that gave him everlasting life. Alan is now a grown-up, and he often thanks the Lord Jesus for dying on the cross for his sins. Alan knows he can never be lost again, for Jesus is an “all-the-way-home” Saviour. And if you will turn to Him you too will have a Saviour who will love you and keep you forever.
ML-03/03/1991