Today we made it to the county fair. Much about the night was very joyous. Our one year old impersonating the lambs, the shock of seeing cows close enough to touch with no fence between them and our mesmerized children.
As we began playing in the kids area, we experienced simultaneously a lost child and a child in distress. My wife and I both became focused on our one year old who had made it high up a ladder to descend down a slide but upon getting to the top the fear was crippling. We both encouraged and motioned for her to come to us while our son had lost track of us and began to wander in search of his parents.
Our hearts sank as we finally helped our daughter come to us only to find that our son was nowhere to be found. Our search was fruitless in the kids area we had been playing in and after praying and searching some more in the area we had lost him, I left to see if he was elsewhere on the fairgrounds. Almost immediately I saw my crying son being carried back towards me by a kind young lady at work as an employee of the fairgrounds. After ten minutes we reunited and I was deeply apologetic to our dear son who was frightened and confused. He was rather quick to forgive his distracted father and I hope that no lasting memory takes hold for him. For his father and mother, we are now better equipped with experience that will drive better decisions in the future.
I could not help but feel connected to the story of the prodigal son as I experienced what I did on the fairgrounds tonight. The prodigal son story tells of a father’s joy at the return of a deviant son. For me I felt the same joy. I went to meet him when he was a far off and I would that I could buy the fatted calf on display at the fairgrounds to celebrate his coming back to our presence.
Loss is a common experience in mortality but through Jesus Christ that which we seek can be found, that which we hope for is possible especially when it is our hope of finding and rescuing one of God’s wonderful daughters or one of his precious sons. Tonight for me it was one of his precious sons and oh what joy when one soul was brought back to the presence of his father.