Heavenly Hide-and-Seek

She was tired of shopping, but I wasn't quite finished. (Isn't that how it usually is with our children...and husbands?) There were only a couple of other people in our area of the store, so when she asked if she could play hide-and-seek, I gave her safe boundaries and away she went.


A few moments later I started looking for her, shoving the clothes with both hands to check the middle of the racks (every kid's perfect hiding place), looking behind the jeans along the wall, through the racks again, and then suddenly I was frantic.


Thinking she mush have disobeyed, I started looking outside of the boundaries--under the doors of the dressing rooms and behind the checkout counter. I gave a stern, "Come out right now," and out popped her head from a rack clearly within the boundaries. I breathed a sigh of relief, and greeted her with open arms.


In Luke 15:4 Jesus said,

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. does he not leave the ninety-nine...and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?"

I was determined that day to find my "lost sheep." My concern at the moment was not that she had gone out of the boundaries, but that I find her.


Just as we would look for our children, Jesus also continues "seeking" us until we are found. We would never say, "Oh, I have most of my children. That's fine. We can go on without that one." Jesus doesn't want to leave any child behind either. He isn't concerned that we have crossed the boundary lines or done things that we shouldn't have done. His concern is that we are found.


Just as we don't stop loving our children because they aren't perfect, God doesn't stop loving us because we've done things wrong. Some people think they have to get their life totally together before they can say yes to God. But that's getting things backward. He wants to guide us so our lives can be all He created us to be.


Have you been found? Or are you still hiding? Is it time for you to come out of the shadows? Maybe it's not that you're hiding from Him; you're just lost and you know something is missing in your life. Let Him find you. He is ready to receive you. He's waiting with arms open wide, a sigh of relief, and a big smile on His face.


from Sharon and Laurie's book Hold You, Mommy