Lost and Found 5-31-09
In 2008 over 614,000 people under age eighteen were reported missing to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC). This total includes runaway, abducted, and abandoned children. Many agencies and organizations exist to try to remedy this situation and rescue these children including the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has been successful in recovering over 138,000 children since 1984 according to their website (www.missingkids.com).
This is a situation that tears at our hearts. Our popular culture is filled with references to this subject in movies, television episodes, songs, and books. We establish special law enforcement and judicial procedures such as “Amber Alerts” and “Megan’s Law”. Pictures are posted on milk containers and sent in the mail on postcards advertisements. The loss of a child causes disruption throughout a community not due to a loss of production or the value of that child’s labor; it causes disruption because normal people cannot abide the thought of a child being lost or abducted. We are made to place the well-being of children ahead of our own.
I cannot imagine the despair and hopelessness that is a daily reality for many runaways, abductees, and other missing children. I can only imagine in my nightmares what the parents of many of those children are going through. But there is one who knows exactly what they are living through, and it is he who took action.
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living … When he came to his senses … he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing … The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ “ (Luke 15:11-32 NIV, excerpted)
Each one of us was a missing child of God, exploited by Satan and the world. Apart from God we led lives of desperation, fear, and hopelessness. We were helpless to change the situation, but God was not! He sent his son Jesus to suffer and die in our place so that we could be rescued and brought back to the family of God.
Pray for those children who are missing. Pray that God will deliver them back to loving families. Realize as well that those who live apart from God are in that same state. Pray that God will bring them back into the family of God. This world is a world of despair and exploitation. But God is the God of the lost and found.
-Charles Peterson