Lost

When I was a young girl I had a habit of wandering off to the book section in the grocery store. My mother always knew where I was and even though she did not want me to do this, I would go anyway not realizing that this unconscious choice to disobey was, in fact, a dangerous choice to make.
Deciding to "teach me a lesson" one day, my mother continued shopping and left me at the book area. In a short while I tired of the books but when I looked for my mother she was no where to be seen.
I panicked and searched for her up and down the aisles. Nowhere...she was nowhere! Convinced that she had been stolen from me, I sat down in the middle of the floor and wailed.
Several store workers and a concerned older lady rushed to my rescue. Through tears I explained that I was lost and couldn't find my mother. Just as I finished my sad tale, my mother walked up to the small crowd surrounding her frightened daughter.
"She is not lost", my mother began. "Only confused and misguided. I told her never to leave my sight. She did ...now she will understand why she must never wander away". With that my mother scooped me up in her arms, hugged me, and carried me off to the shopping cart(which was just around the corner where she had been following me the entire time).
I promised never to wander off again...and I never did!...and she promised that as long as I followed her I would always be safe.
A lesson for life was learned that day. Yet in later years I wandered once again. I wandered from God through my own willfulness and immaturity. He found me and scooped me up in His arms. He hugged me and promised me that as long as I followed Him I would always be safe. I once was lost...but now am found....Glory to His name!!!