It was Saturday afternoon and Mother and Mary had gone down-town together. They were in one of the big stores when Mary began to coax: “Please, Mother, let's go and see the toys!”
So they made their way through the busy store and into the elevator which took them up a few floors in just a twinkling, and let them out into what seemed like fairyland to Mary!
An electric train with real lights and a shrieking whistle was speeding along on a tiny track, through tunnels and under bridges. In another corner were all the lovely dolls; and then there were games and things to play house with! Mary felt that she would like to stay there all day just looking at everything. She wandered from counter to counter having such a good time!
Then she saw a beautiful doll house that looked almost real enough to live in. After peeking in a window here and there she called her mother to come and see too, “Oh, look, Mother, isn't it nice?”
There were many people all around her so perhaps she was somewhere behind someone; so Mary began to look, calling softly, “Mother, Mother!”
In a few moments Mary grew frightened and wanted to cry. “Mother, Mother,” she cried, louder and louder.
She was lost, lost! Oh, what should she do? And down she sat on a toy chair and sobbed with all her heart. Suddenly she thought she heard a familiar voice. She stopped to listen.
“Mary, Mary!”
“Here I am, Mother! Oh, I'm so glad you found me—I was so scared—I thought, maybe... “
But she didn't have time to finish, for Mother, who had been frightened too, was hugging her so tightly in her arms!
Now, shall I tell you a secret? Do you know that Mary was lost before she knew that she was? Yes, she was! But at first she wasn't frightened for she was having such a good time and she hadn't discovered that she was all alone until she looked around for her mother.
Boys and girls, some of you are lost—and you don't know it! You are happy and having a good time because you haven't realized it yet. You are lost in sin, and far, far away from God. But someone is looking for you, I wonder if He has found you yet? Listen, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)).