It's a Cryin' Shame

Hope you had a great July 4th weekend, and I hope that, in your celebrations, you didn't lose sight of how wonderfully blessed this country is, and how blessed you and I are to live under her flag.  God bless America.

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My 9 yr. old son (good lookin' boy, isn't he?) is currently beginning a three-week stay with his grandparents, during which time he'll be about 900 miles away from us. Mama isn't taking it very well, and I'm not in the best of spirits, either.  Please don't read this as: "We don't trust her parents with our son."  That's not true at all; in fact, I love them a lot and trust them implicitly (otherwise, I would have nixed the idea off the bat).  However, things happen...and sometimes, bad things happen.


In a recent e-newsletter, Todd Wilson shared a harrowing account of losing track of his son.  At the bottom of the newsletter, Todd provided a link for dads to share their own "lost kid" stories.  There were a bunch of responses that really gave me the willies, but I wanted to share this one about a guy who lost his son...twice.  The first time, he wandered off and was quickly found.  But the second time, things were a little different:

"Cameron was w/ my sister at a local festival & he wandered off. We ran all over the place trying to find him, alerting the cops and such. Once again, I saw someone carrying him, but this time it was a creepy looking older guy that seemed a bit shocked to run into me. He claimed he found my son @ the other end of the festival. I thanked him for returning him. He looked around nervously & said 'Uh, yeah, I gotta go.'"

I know how you feel right now, because I feel the same way.  I'm sick to my stomach, too, and my heart is twisting in on itself, agonizing over how I would react, how somebody could even contemplate taking a child, and what could have happened to that little boy.


Little children are so fragile, so vulnerable, so innocent and naive.  They have no idea what horrors are out there; they don't understand the depths of evil that swirl all around them.  They don't grasp the truth that there really ARE monsters out there, just waiting for the perfect time to strike.  At a moment's notice, these precious children can be drawn away from the safety and security of their parents by a flash of color splashed on a bouncing balloon.  They can be pulled away from us in a breath by the intoxicating aroma of strawberry cotton candy or a by the silliness of a soft, fuzzy golden retriever puppy.  Instantly, they can wander away from everything good and safe...and into the widening mouth of a beast aching to devour them.

"Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

-1st Pet. 5:8

You and I - we are the wandering children.


Think about lost children, and the fear they must endure once they realize they've wandered away from the people they know and love and trust.  Does that same emotion wash over us when we realize how far we have wandered away from our Father?  Are we reduced to trembling as they are?  Do we "grieve, mourn, and wail", as we're prompted in James 4:9?


God-centered humility is the result of a series of ongoing reality checks.  If we are not driven to intense fear by the distance we continually put between ourselves and our Father, we are believing a lie and parading around in front of the open door of the lion's cage.


Please, do not allow yourself to be devoured.