Another blinding flash of lightning-another crashing roar of thunder-and the four shivering children huddled closer to each other and to the old, rotten tree that they were clinging to for shelter. Pitifully inadequate was that shelter, as the rain beat down more strongly. In the shrieking darkness of midnight around them, the children were terrified.
Lost in the woods at midnight, drenched with rain, scratched and bruised and hungry-four six-year-olds waited-and feared.
Why didn’t someone come? Didn’t anybody care?
Of course they cared-many people cared. Many people were also out in that driving rainstorm, pressing through the thick, wet underbrush-searching, searching, searching for the children. Helicopters roared overhead whenever the rain slackened; floodlights probed through the brush-and the children were more terrified than ever. Would no one come?
Hours earlier they had been with eleven other children on a field trip to Alderman Ford Park. There are many nature trails through the thick woods. Leaving the picnic pavilion, the children followed, with two chaperones, along one trail and then another. What a great change from the routine of their day care center! But when the little group gathered at last at the pavilion, four were missing: Alexis, Cody, Rachel and Zachery.
First the chaperones searched, then police-then relatives and scores of volunteers were searching on foot and on horseback through the thick woods.
Jeff Brombeloe was one of the volunteers. He said, “I’ve got two young ones of my own....No way I could go to sleep knowing there were four kids out there lost!”
With two others he walked through the woods, shouting and looking for the children.
Midnight came-and at last an answer from the children. They were found! They were safe! And Jeff’s cell phone sent the good news back instantly to weary searchers and relieved families.
How could it have happened? Rachel said they followed Cody into the woods, believing he knew where he was going. He did not! The trails through the woods can be very, very confusing, and in no time all four were hopelessly lost. How like most of us! Instead of following the One who is “the way” (and the truth and the life!), it is so easy to “follow the crowd” and be lost in the mazes of this world. But little Rachel learned something! Safe in her mother’s arms, she said firmly, “I will never follow those little boys again!”
What a wise decision! There is one way-and only one-that is right; one way that is “narrow” but straight leads on truly and clearly. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:1818But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18)).
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)). Cody thought he was right; the other three believed he knew the way, but it led only to a miserable experience. If the children had not been found as soon as they were, there could have been serious consequences.
Who was most happy that the children were found? Of course the children were glad-taken to shelter and safety (and chocolate bars!), but think of the joy of their parents! When we read that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:1010Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:10)), do we realize who has the greatest joy when the lost soul is “found”? It is not the saved sinner, happy though he or she may be-it is not the angels-it is in the presence of the angels-God Himself! Can you realize that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents? Isn’t it wonderful!