Lost and Found
by Susan Brantley
Have you ever spent an hour or so of your day looking for your glasses, and realize they’re actually on top of your head? I have! In our lifetime we are going to lose many things. We will lose our car keys, house keys, purses, wallets, shoes, socks, recipes, make-up, pencils, notebooks, and of course, the elusive remote control.
A few years ago, I came close to losing one of the most precious things in my life—my grandson, Destin. It was a normal Saturday, and of course, we were going to make our weekly trip to Wal-Mart. My daughter, Kali, needed curtains for her living room window, and I went with her just to get out of the house, and also to help her with Destin.
We had been shopping for a while before we got to the curtain department, so Destin was getting a little restless. We decided to let him get out of the buggy with the stipulation that he stay where we could see him.
Now Destin was known for playing under the racks of clothes, and he loved to play hide-and-seek. When he got to the store, we had to constantly keep our eyes on him. We began to look at the curtains. Kali looked down and he was still there. I looked down and he was still there, playing with the curtains, swinging them back and forth. Kali looked down again and he was still there. Then when I looked down, he was gone! Alarm bells didn’t go off at that particular time because we knew how well he liked to hide. We began to look through the displays, assuming that’s where he was. We looked, and looked, and looked—he wasn’t there! We called his name: Destin, Destin O’Neill, Destin O’Neill Orr, where are you? Not a whimper, no rustling of the curtains, not a giggle—nothing! Kali and I began to search the next aisle, but he wasn’t there.
Finally, I saw an associate and told her we had a lost child. She called up to the front of the store and said: “Lost child.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I assumed that it meant that all the associates that were on the floor would begin to look for Destin. I had to tell them what he looked like and what he was wearing so they could find him! Tears began to run down Kali’s face because she didn’t know what to do. Should we call 911, or should we call my husband, Bruce, or Destin’s dad? Now I’m a big fan of the ID channel, and in every single case where there is a child missing, they say almost the exact same thing: “this could not happen in our town.” It’s a small town. You’re at your local Wal-Mart that you’ve been to a thousand times. Destin’s been there a thousand times. Nothing bad had ever happened. What is different about today? Then the horrible realization hit me—what if someone had taken him? No! I would not let that thought enter my mind! We had to find him—we just had to.
Have you ever walked up and down the aisles of Wal-Mart on a Saturday screaming a child’s name at the top of your lungs? I continued to get a lot of attention. Everyone stopped and wanted to know if I had a lost child. And I said that we did. So, they asked us what he looked like and what he was wearing? All of this seemed like it took four hours when actually it was only a few minutes.
I think the worst part for me was watching my daughter, Kali. First her hands started to shake. Then her body started to shake. I believed that she might faint. I could tell that she wanted to sit down and just weep, but she kept looking and so did I.
Finally, we got back to the curtain department where this whole ordeal first started. With weak voices, we called out one more time: “Destin O’Neill Orr, if you can hear us, answer us.” Then, like a miracle, he gets out from behind one of the curtain displays, blue eyes sparkling, and with a big smile on his face. I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. I thought Kali and I would both collapse when we saw him. We ran to him. Kali picked him up and held on to him as hard as she could. I was there kissing him, holding his hands and whatever part of him I could touch. He was as happy to see us as we were to see him. He had been lost but now he was found. We put him in the buggy, went as fast as we could to the exit, and took him home, where he was safe and where he received more hugs and kisses, and a small lecture on staying where his Nana and Mama could see him.
Yes, he was lost, but luckily, he was found. We all have something that we can lose if we aren’t careful—our souls. If we do not live the life of a Christian and do what the Bible commands us to do, we will lose our souls. Scripture tells us in Matthew 16:26, KJV, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” I guess the question is: do we want to be lost and spend eternity with Satan in torment, or do we want to be found in God’s good graces on the Day of Judgment, and spend an eternity in Heaven?