One day Grana and Grandpa took Lynn down to the boardwalk at Ocean City. On one side of the boardwalk is the ocean, and on the other side is a long line of little shops where an artist will draw your picture or a storekeeper will sell you candy, doughnuts, souvenirs or clothing. In these interesting shops you may find just about anything you would like to buy. Lynn and her grandparents were looking through the shop windows when they came to one that had some things that were interesting to Grandma and Grana. The three of them went inside.
What Grandma and Grandpa were looking at did not interest three-year-old Lynn, and so she wandered off to look at something else. After a while she turned around and realized she was no longer with her grandparents. She was frightened, so she began running through the store looking for them, but she couldn’t find them. She ran out on the boardwalk and looked one way and then the other way, but they weren’t there either. Filled with fear and panic she started running up and down the boardwalk crying, “Grandma! Grandma! Grandpa!” But she couldn’t find them. Finally she clung to a post and just stood there crying.
In Luke 15:44What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? (Luke 15:4), the Lord Jesus asks a question: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” And that is just what Grandma and Grandpa did. As soon as they realized that Lynn was no longer with them, they started frantically searching for her. They were determined that they would not stop searching until they found her.
There was someone else there on the boardwalk looking for people in trouble too. It was a policeman on a motorbike. Riding by, he saw Lynn standing, clinging to her post and crying her heart out. The policeman stopped and wanted to pick Lynn up so he could take her to safety, but she wouldn’t go with him. She wouldn’t let go of her post.
The Lord Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost — you and me. How sad it would be if we wouldn’t go with Him, if we wouldn’t let Him take us up in His loving arms and wash away our sins and make us safe for all eternity.
The policeman would not force Lynn to go with him, and the Lord Jesus will never force us to go with Him either. But the policeman had an idea. He would see if he could find the people Lynn belonged to. And it didn’t take him very long. He didn’t have to ask Lynn what they looked like because he could tell when he saw them that they were frantically looking for someone.
When the man in the Bible found his sheep, he laid it on his shoulders and with a thankful heart carried it home. Then he called all his friends and neighbors together and said to them, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” We repent when we admit that we are lost in our sins and need the Lord Jesus to lift us up out of them. He is the only one who can do that, because He died on the cross and shed His precious blood to wash away our sins. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray.” 1 Peter 2;24,25.
The policeman came up to Grandpa and asked, “Did you lose a little girl about three years old and wearing a blue dress?”
“Yes, I did,” he quickly answered.
And so the policeman told him just where he could find her down the boardwalk a little way, clinging to a post.
Do you think Grandma and Grandpa decided they would go have a milkshake or a cup of coffee before they went to find Lynn? NO! They hurried to find her and picked up their dear little girl and covered her with kisses, telling her over and over that everything was going to be all right.
That’s the way the Lord Jesus will treat you, too, if you will let Him carry you to a place of safety in His loving arms. He wants to wash away your sins right now. Will you let Him?
ML-07/17/1988