Two-year-old Windie didn't intend to get lost. She just started out to follow the older children into the woods near her home, but two-year-old legs are pretty short. Unable to keep up with the others, she trudged along contentedly behind them.
Further and further ahead hiked the children, and at last they were completely out of sight. Still Windie followed in the way she thought they had gone. At last even their voices died away in the distance, and the silence was broken only by the occasional call of a bird, the chatter of a squirrel in the trees, or mysterious rustlings and scurrying in the underbrush. Windie trudged on, cold and tired, but still hoping to catch up with the others. Night was beginning to catch up with her, and she was shivering in her thin little shirt. It was really dark now, and mosquitoes and night insects began to swarm. She couldn't see the path any longer, and vines and bushes scratched and tore her bare little feet. Windie was thoroughly lost and frightened, but still in the dark woods she went on—and on—and on. At home there was panic. Her mother and father were out searching the neighborhood; then the neighbors joined them. Soon the sheriff's office was called, and every one available was out looking for the missing toddler.
There were lights flashing in the dark woods, and voices calling "Windie! Windie! Over it all sounded the drone of a helicopter circling with its big spotlight.
The hours passed so slowly. Nine—ten—eleven o'clock and still no little girl. Midnight came, and the sheriff realized that his men were not only dead tired, but would have to be on duty again in the morning. He called off the search for a while to let them get some sleep.
The helicopter too was having difficulties. A ground fog its light could not pierce made it useless, and its crew had to quit.
And the little girl was still lost.
Two men could not bear to give up the search. Joe Bernadini and Larry Lee thought of their own children, safe and snug at home in their beds, and back they went into the dark woods. Lee said, "I have three babies at home. If you have three babies at home, you know why I went back to look for her!"
More hours passed. Once their flashlight beam caught a rattlesnake slithering away from the light, then two water moccasins. Now they were searching the edges of a swamp. Right and left the light flashed, and—what was that? Something caught in the light—a little figure, a tousle of brown hair— Windie! Sound asleep, nestled in the crook of a log, Windie was found.
Gently they lifted her, cold and wet and muddy, wrapped her in their jackets, and carried her back to her mother's waiting arms. Oh, what joy in that home!
Remember the story of the lost sheep in Luke 15? The shepherd who lost one sheep in the wilderness and went out searching until he found it?
When he had found it, he carried it home, rejoicing. At home, he called his friends and neighbors and said, "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." That was how Windie's parents and neighbors felt.
Have you ever felt like Windie, lost and miserable and not knowing which way to turn in the darkness? There is One who is searching for you, One who wants so much to lift you up out of the dark and dangerous wilderness of this world and carry you, rejoicing, safe to His home.
The lost sheep had to wait to be found; Windie could not send her parents a message: "Here I am in the swamp," but you can say, right now: "Lord Jesus, I want to be found. I want to come home."
Will He do it? Will He save you? Oh, try and see! He says, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."
Do you think that Windie said, "Please leave me here—I'll find my own way home"? Silly thought, isn't it? But are you saying to the seeking Savior, "Leave me alone—I'll find my own way, and in my own time"?
Don't do it! Let Him find you NOW. It is the only time you can be sure of. It doesn't matter how far away you may have wandered: "He is able to save to the uttermost."
And who was happiest, Windie or her mother and father? The parents rejoiced, their neighbors rejoiced with them, and the Lord Jesus will say, "Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which was lost."