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“The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

It is a phone call I will never forget. My wife was calling to tell me that our three-year-old son was missing. She was at the park, and while she tended to our one-year-old daughter, the boy had disappeared into the woods. After calling his name and searching for some time, she called 911. I raced across town, praying all the way. When I arrived, four police cars were already on the scene. “Surely, they have found him by now,” I thought. As I ran to the scene, I asked one of the officers if my son had been found. He had not. The officer informed me that they were bringing in the canine unit to assist. Since the park was in a residential area, they were concerned that someone had abducted my son. I was terrified.

Thankfully, within just a few minutes of my arrival, my son was found. He had gotten lost in the woods and was peacefully playing without a clue that anything was amiss.

That day, I came as close as I pray I ever will to understanding what our heavenly Father has experienced with every one of his children. The Bible says that we were all lost because of our sins. We wandered away from our Father and were walking straight for the hell our sins deserve, as blissfully unaware of our predicament as my son was in the woods that day.

Our loving, heavenly Father could not allow that to happen. His love, far greater even than my love for my son, moved him to send a rescue unit to save us. That rescue unit consisted of one person—his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this world to find all of God’s lost children and rescue us from our sins and what our sins deserve. He went to the cross and paid the price to free us from those sins. Through his saving work, we are reunited with our heavenly Father and can look forward to spending all of eternity with him in the heaven he is preparing for us.

Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus to seek and save me when I was lost! Amen.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.