There must have been about twenty children talking, laughing, and at times puffing as they followed the leader and filed up a narrow trail in one of the wooded parks where we were having an outing for our Sunday school. Soon the grade became steeper; there was less laughing and more puffing.
“May we go back to the picnic tables,” we heard two voices call from the rear of the line? Permission was granted, and soon in our fun we forgot about Lois and Betty who had wearily turned back. We circled the mountain and returned to the tables, tired and hungry, though still quite happy.
Suddenly someone noticed the two girls were not there. Without delay a search was started back up the trail, but there seemed no trace of the two. Our hearts felt weighed, and a dark cloud seemed to hover over our delighul picnic day. Gradually even the younger ones sensed the seriousness of the situation, as chatting and laughing were changed to quiet, diligent searching.
Finally, faintly, through the underush we heard a pitiful, earnest cry, “We’re LOST.” How our hearts leaped with hope!
“Where are you?” we shouted.
“Here. We’re lost!” Needless to say, though scratched, weary and crying, they were soon found and saved. It was an object lesson we did not soon forget as a servant of the Lord earnestly counselled us right there that the quickest way to be saved was to cry out, “I’m lost!”
Is there one who reads this who is lost in the endless, winding trails and tangled underbrush of sin? Won’t you just cry out in your distress, “I’m lost”? Oh, how much joy there’ll be in heaven to hear that! And soon you’ll find that there is a Saviour seeking for you. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, came all the way from heaven to seek and to find poor lost sinners. Before we could be saved, however, He, as the Good Sheerd, must give His life for the sheep. On the cross of Calvary He bore the judgment of God against sin in those hours of darkness. He finished the work of redemption, and now as soon as a sinner cries out, “I’m lost,” He is ABLE, READY and WILLING to save him at once from all his sins.
ML 02/19/1956