Something that happened to Leila and I tonight helped me realize something pretty exciting!
We were hanging out with Jocie and Ethan, and after watching a movie together, we went for a walk around Ethan’s suburban development ( a fairly large one ) and walked for a long while. The whole time Jocie and Ethan were like 50 yards ahead of us, but we could mostly see them due to the street lights.
But at one point we looked up and realized that somehow they had gotten far enough ahead of us and it was dark enough on the street we were on that we couldn’t see them and didn’t know how far ahead of us they were! We had some idea of where we were, but because we had been following them the whole time, and because we aren’t familiar with the development (a rather large and complicated one) we weren’t sure exactly where they had gone. We were lost. (In suburban Maryland, nonetheless!)
We walked a bit further and took some guesses at a road to take (we found one that looked like a major road that would lead back to the central area where his townhouse is located) but that ended up taking us all the way around in a big circle, back to where we had originally lost them (or been left behind).
At one point along our big loop, I did stop a car to ask him if he could give us an idea of where we were, but he didn’t live in the development and had no idea where we might need to go. I didn’t have the heart to ring anyone’s doorbell to ask for directions (it was around midnight and all the houses looked dark) After the big circle back to a main highway though, we did have a little better idea of where to go (the long way back). So we just kept walking.
Eventually, Jocie and Ethan, who had made it back to Ethan’s house with no problem, came looking for us in Ethan’s car after waiting for us further up the road, and trying to call my cell phone to no avail. (We had left everything important or that might have been remotely helpful at the house: car keys with the keyring flashlight and cell phones, because I probably said to myself as we walked out the door “why do I need those things just to take a walk around the neighborhood??” )
Thankfully, our friends loved us enough to come seeking for us and bring us home in the car.
But as I was talking to Leila about this afterwards, it came to me that this situation very much reminds me of the human situation. We are all born lost and remain lost for some time in our life, and sadly some are never found. (although humanity is lost by its’ own choice, it wasn’t left behind, and it wasn’t an accident) Like us, humanity is lost and get itself found. Many of the other people around us (like the man in the car in our situation) are also “lost” or at least couldn’t lead us to the right path. And it’s dark, lonely, and a little bit scary.
Leila and I were so thankful to see the headlights of Ethan’s car pull up in the darkness and the friendly voices reaching to us from the car; greeting us and offering a nice ride home. Similarly, as a Christian, I should be so thankful that God, the light, loved me enough to passionately pursue me in the darkness and to rescue me from a situation I couldn’t get myself out of - my sinful, fallen, lost self. If Leila and I had kept walking around we would have eventually found our way I’m sure, but in this spiritual analogy, I believe, humans cannot find their way without God “pulling up in the Car of Grace to drive us down the Road of Salvation.”
If you haven’t thanked God recently for finding you in the darkness and bringing you out, just go ahead and do it right now with me! THANKS GOD!
1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ”
If you are still lost, pray and ask God to come find you and bring you home. Although Jocie and Ethan couldn’t hear us calling out for them because they were too far away, God is never too far away to hear you cry out to Him (He’s everywhere)! So go ahead. He wants to bring you home. He knows you are lost.
Psalm 107:4-9
“ Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.”
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