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He must have been two when it happened: back when his cheeks still looked like he was storing up nuts for winter. (Now, at 16, he just eats like he’s storing up for winter.)

The store’s fluorescent lights buzzed above, and the air conditioning was running full-blast there in the South.

I was pregnant with our third, and making one of those fly-bys mothers of young children perform in a store when they have to look at a rack before one of her kids starts crying, whining, distracting, throwing things out of the cart or into the cart–you get the idea.

He asked to get out of the cart. The store wasn’t busy.

But in what felt like less than thirty seconds, he was also…

Gone.

Have you seen my two-year-old?

My emotions first traded places, then collided–from annoyed to worried to angered to panicky.

I called his name, ducked under each rack, peered around the corners. How fast could he run anyway?

Whispering over my shoulder after about five minutes were rumors of a recent kidnapping ring. The perpetrators took a child to a restroom and changed his entire appearance before leaving the store.

I began to call with a little more urgency, parting the clothes on the rack.

So it was with embarrassment that I asked the fitting room attendant if she’d seen a two-year-old boy. I described the clothes he was wearing.

I soon heard her call a “Code Adam” over the loudspeaker. The doors of the store locked. All attendants left their posts to look for my son.

We did find him. He’d had a potty accident and had hidden himself beneath a rack of dresses. A flutter of skirt caused by the overhead fans had made me wonder, Did I check that one?

There he was, huddled beneath in that pudgy toddler crouch, silent and ashamed from a potty accident.

I gathered him in my arms, boggy pants and all. I was just so grateful to hold him close.

What’s mobilized for you

But what I remember from that day was the team of people and resources suddenly mobilized to locate my little boy, swiftly and intentionally. Something reminded me of the story of the lost sheep (Luke 15); of a shepherd fervent.

As a Christian parent, you must not deny reality, but if you spend your mental and spiritual time meditating on the struggle, and not meditating on your Lord, you’re probably going down. When we’re God-forgetful, we tend to load burdens on our shoulders that we cannot bear. The most important thing you can do for your children is to remember the One who sent you, and, remembering the One who sent you, teach your heart to rest. –Paul David Tripp

(Is God really a less-caring parent than I am? Check out Matthew 7:11.)

Lately, I have a friend who’s been wandering from God in a way that clenches my heart. I’ve been waiting awhile, asking God to soften her inside.

After all, salvation is his (Revelation 7:10,12). His only.

What happened to pull you to him?

Feelings of impossibility press in on me in this seemingly interminable waiting room. But then I remembered the miracle of God softening me, pulling me to him.

To be clear, God woke me up when I was five.  My parents shared the news of Jesus with me, and God made me his.

But aside from the mere awakening of a dead soul, no matter how young or old–let me point out just a handful of variables God aligned to make me his royal daughter. Even with my rather boring story.

  • My family history: My dad and mom coming to Christ, as well as the people who taught them about Jesus, and the people who taught their parents about Jesus.  And the people who taught my grandparents, and great-grandparents, and great-, great-, etc.
  • God softening all the hearts of those people, and aligning their circumstances to know him.
  • Ancestors persevering in their faith.
  • God sending people to disciple them.
  • Whoever came to my ancestors’ region to tell them about Jesus.
  • Whichever ancestor had to resist opposition to accept Jesus.
  • The Protestant Reformation.
  • My parents discipling me. 
  • Jesus saving the Gentiles.
  • Paul making Jesus’ salvation known to the Gentiles.

Basically, you can go back to the beginning of time. And God was working miracles, mobilizing resources, which converged by me becoming his.

What has transpired over millennia–one might call it “waiting”–so you’d be his, right in this moment?

Hear these words:

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:18

I hear God implying, If you or someone else who I’ve earmarked as mine is lost?

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. -John 10:28-29

I am able to move heaven and earth to bring people close.

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