God Speaking

“I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…” (Ezekiel 34:16)

Last week my husband and I were having lunch with two of our granddaughters, when the elder of the two, now a young lady, reminded me of a sweet story about her when she was a little girl. All our family love storytelling so of course I obliged by retelling this story. When she was a little girl, we owned a holiday cabin and she and her family spent lots of happy summers there and although it was a remote area, travelling on a very busy highway was part of the journey, and the story involves one particular drive back to the city. Our, then little granddaughter, was playing with a set of tiny zoo animals and lifted one for it to look out of the crack at the top of the window and it fell on to that busy highway. She was at first horrified that her father did not stop immediately to retrieve it, but then said confidently, “That is okay. I will ask Nana to find it when she next drives down.” You can imagine how confident I felt when that message was relayed to me!

We can have confidence though, in Our Heavenly Father, who specialises in finding the lost and pledges to not only find any that may have wandered from his care, but to restore them and build up their strength. (Ezekiel 34:16) His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, promises also to safeguard all those entrusted to his care.

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:39)

Being lost can take on all sorts of different meanings and doesn’t always mean lying on a busy road with cars streaming past like the little toy in my story, but a “lost” feeling can be equally terrifying. We can lose our self-confidence and feel lost, just like being on that highway, with life rushing past us and nobody noticing. We can feel abandoned and believe that nobody will find us and restore our self-esteem. We can lose heart in striving for our goals. We can lose face when we make mistakes. We can lose hope when circumstances overwhelm us. We can lose our faith in mankind when we are badly hurt by others and lose our own self-respect when we hurt others even when it was unintentional. Jesus knew of all these “losses” that can assail us and make us feel lost, and I am sure that is why he told the crowds that listened to him, and left behind for us to read the beautiful parable of The Lost Son. (Luke 15:11 – 32) He wanted them and us to grasp the incredible love of the Father who wants none of his children to be lost. None of his children to feel abandoned. None of his children to go unnoticed. None of his children to feel unloved. In fact we are described by him as his “treasured possession”.

“They will be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “In the day when I make up my treasured possession…” (Malachi 3:17)

No way will Our Heavenly Father allow us, his treasured possessions, to ever remain lost.