Was lost

Caleb and My footprint

This past week we where able to take a few days and go camping with some great friends from JM's youth years! Our kids loved spending time with the other 6 kids that where there. Before we even where able to unpack and set our tents up RRR and CMR where off exploring in the bushes. We camped off of San Onofre State beach on the bluff side so there was plenty of brush, trails and dirt.

That first evening Caleb could not sit still for one minute. He and the other kids would leave the camp site in packs to go exploring. They always came back and they, for the most part, where always together. This evening Caleb was left on his own and could not find his way back. JM, for my sake, went out to look for him and the kids found him not 2 minutes later. It was enough to make Caleb scared though. He sat on his dad's lap for the next 30 minutes crying because he was afraid.

The next morning they where off again. This time he and RRR and another one of the kids went out exploring by the back of our camp site. I could see his blue shirt and his little blond head. I was drinking my coffee and listening to them. For a second Caleb fell behind from the other kids. I could hear the kids calling for Caleb. No answer. But all along I could see Caleb's head, but he could not see me. As I turned past the tent I saw him, he saw me and starting running as fast as he could saying "mommy, mommy I miss you!!!" He leaped into my arms and held me tight as he cried. "Mommy I don't want to be without you!" he said. "It's ok Caleb, you are ok now, I am right here. Where you lost and scared?" I asked. Through tears he answered yes. I reminded him that he needed to stay with the other kids and not to wonder off so that he would not get lost. I asked him "don't you remember what happened yesterday?" He said he forgot and it just happened. In a split second he was lost. The other kids where too fast for him to keep up with and he fell behind. But what he did not know was that I had my eye on him the whole time. I knew where he was even when he didn't.

I held him for what seemed like forever. I was happy to do so as he needed to be near to my heart after feeling like he was all alone and lost. All it took was a glimpse of my eye and he knew where to run to. It reminds me of how we can run to Christ. "For I am with you..." He promises us. But in our own will we tend to wander off away from Him; even when we don't mean too. Even when we know how scary it is to be without Him.. It only takes a split second for us to loose track of where we are going. I remember the days when I was lost and how I found Christ, and yet He was always with me. Never will He leave me nor forsake me. But He still allows me to freely walk the path. To make the choose to follow Him daily. And when I have wondered off for a split second and have fallen, when I look up to catch the glimpse of His eye upon me, He is there for me to run to with arms wide open to embrace me, teach me and forgive me.

Thank you Lord for you are with us! Amen and Amen!