“THE Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
A family of tiny children went to the seaside with their mother and grandmother. It is such fun to play in the sand with spades and buckets, is it not?
Well, Harold, Katie and tiny Lucy, each had a bucket and spade, and they enjoyed themselves as much as any other children, while mother, with baby on her lap, sat on the sand with grandmother watching the play. So passed a happy week: but, alas! a sad day was to come.
Harold loved to play in the sand, and was always in a hurry to run off there as soon as he had swallowed his food, and in his baste, he sometimes forgot to do what mother told him. He was only six years old, but quite old enough to know how to obey, was he not? This afternoon that I am telling you about, he was as usual in a great hurry to start for the beach, and was not at all pleased when mother, having dressed wee Lucy, told him to take care of her outside the house, while she got the others ready. Now Harold never liked waiting, and mother seemed a long time coming, and he got more and more impatient, at last he thought Lucy might just as well stay there by herself until the others joined her, while he amused himself on the sand. So off he ran, and never looked back, nor found out that his little sister was toddling after him, as fast as her very short legs could carry her.
On he ran, and soon turned one corner and then another, making his way to the great sea beach, where the pretty shells lay, and the little crabs crawled about so funnily. But Lucy did not know the road so well, and, when she lost sight of Harold, she soon went wrong, trotting on, down one street and cap another, every step taking the poor wee thing further out of the right way.
When mother and grandmother Came out presently with Katie and baby, they were very much vexed to find that Harold had not done as he was told. They hurried down to the beach, and there they soon found him at play, but no little Lucy was with him! Now do you think mother said, “Ah, well, we have two boys and a girl left, that is quite enough”? O, no! you all know mother’s love better than that, don’t you? And Jesus’ love for His little stray lambs is far greater than even mother’s love, so that though He may have ninety-nine sheep left, He will still go after that one which is lost until He finds it.
O! how ashamed and how unhappy Harold was, when he found out what sad consequences had come of his disobedience, for he tenderly loved his little sister, although he had deserted her so naughtily. He and Katie both cried bitterly as they ran along the side of their mother, who hurried here and there, asking all she met if they had seen the lost child. Grandma went in another direction, vainly inquiring after her, but no one knew anything of poor little Lucy.
O! how glad they would have been if they could have heard her call out, Grandma! mamma! here I am!” but no cry did they hear. And I am sure this is just how Jesus longs to hear some of you call out, “Lord, save me,” and, O! how quickly then He would find you and save you.
Two very long hours passed away in fruitless search for Lucy, hours that seemed longer to the unhappy seekers than a whole day. Poor mother’s heart was sick and heavy as she went back to the house, hoping to hear her child had come home, and then hurried again to the beach, vainly searching among the merry groups of children for her tiny Lucy. O! what would father say be heard what had happened? How they all wished he was there to help them, and to tell them what to do—the strong, young father, who had stayed at his daily toil, while he sent them to enjoy this holiday, which now seemed ending so terribly.
And now what do you guess suddenly changed all the tears into smiles? Ah! I see you know. Yes, it was little Lucy, in the arms of a stranger, who had picked her up, and was now carrying her to the police station, hoping her parents would go there to inquire after her. What delight all the little family were in, as they each in turn hugged, and kissed, and laughed over the little one that had been lost and now was found!
Now this is just a faint picture of the dear Savior’s joy, when He finds a poor lost sinner—one for whom He has bled and died on Calvary’s cross, and whom He has long sought.
Dear children, will you give Jesus the joy of finding you? Will you call out to Him to save you? Do you know that you are lost, and that you need Him to seek you and to find you? How gladly He would pick up His little stray lamb, and lay it on His shoulders rejoicing! How happy you would be, too, if you were found by Him, the tender Shepherd, and could sing from your heart
“I was lost, a little lamb,
Out of Jesus’ fold,
Faint with hunger and with fear,
In the dark and cold.
Jesus missed me, though a lamb,
Little, lone, and weak,
And He could not rest for love,
‘He the lost must seek.
“Now I’m safe, a little lamb,
Safe in Jesus’ fold,
Jesus found and brought me in
From the dark and cold.
Is He glad, and am not
who went astray,
Glad that He has brought me back
To the heavenly way?”
ML-09/12/1920