I've been struck by Luke 15, verses 4-10 these last couple of weeks. To paraphrase, What mother, having any number of children, if she loses one of them, doesn't leave everything else behind in order to seek out the one who is lost in the wilderness? Who wouldn't exhaust every effort, spend all that she has, in order to go after that which is lost until she find it?
It's been easy to liken this parable to my life of late because of an experience of a friend of mine. Her son and his girlfriend went into the Sierra Nevada mountains for a short camping trip. Through a series of bad breaks the scenario turned quickly treacherous; the weather turned, the truck battery died. Using tricks I'd never thought of he was able to get his truck started, and, having been out in the mountains wet for a couple of days, decided to attempt a flood-swollen river crossing. In the attempt the truck was lost to the river, though Ryan and Viola were able to escape and scramble to safety.
Ginny can't know what is happening to her son. All she knows is that he hasn't shown up for appointments made, Viola hasn't reported to work. Days are passing with no word. She heads to California to help in whatever ways you can; organizing searches, calling, praying, searching, praying, digging, praying.
Every mother everywhere relates to the gut-wretching mystery of wondering what has happened to her child. (I assure you, it matters not whether the child is two or thirty-two.)After nearly a week of severe winter conditions it becomes more and more unlikely the outcome can be positive. When all there is left is to leave it in the Lord's hands, that's what you finally do. A prayer time is set aside for 3:30 on Saturday afternoon. We commit our most sincere hearts to the task.
As the state of California will not send up a helicopter with no known logical place to look, the family must hire their own helicopter. After the paperwork is completed, a plan is mapped out, the helicopter goes up at last. Simultaneously, the lost couple are trying to think what else they can possible do, having finally left their fate in the Lord's hands as well.
After an hour or so of searching the helicopter heads toward a small hill. Ryan and Viola hear the rumble of the chopper blades and begin to run out of the woods toward an open field. With the sun behind them, the helicopter pilot flies over the rise and sees a couple on their knees in a field, overcome with emotion that their salvation has come.
What feelings come over them all can only be speculation, but we can imagine, that when they have found that which is lost, there was rejoicing. Ginny called, texted, emailed, shouted to all her friends and neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found that sheep which was lost!"
And in my report, she added, "Vicki, the helicopter found them at 3:30."
