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The night was cold and
windy, it seems a little Halloween-like
with the tree limbs resembling huge black
shadows of monsters. In the little
girls mind, that's exactly what they
were. Monsters trying to take her
away someplace where she'd never see her
mommy and daddy again. She was so
afraid she could hardly breathe. She
had wandered out in the late afternoon and
lost her way. It was beginning to
get dark and she started for home
thinking, Mommy will be so upset with
me. She had no idea of how worried
Mommy and Daddy really were, and how many people
were out looking for her.
It
was a little town in WV where the
mountains were more dense the farther you
went. The house was on the side of
the mountain and the children were used to
playing pretty much where they wanted,
within a certain distance from the
house. But today Grandma and Grandpa
were there visiting and no one noticed
that little Sarah wasn't there.
Knowing she always came home after a time of
playing, it didn't occur to them
that she might not come home as usual.
She
had found some pretty flowers and began
picking a bouquet for her mommy and didn't
realize how long it had been.
Suddenly it was getting dark and she knew
she had to get home but as she turned
around, first in one direction, then
another, she said out loud, "Which
way is home?" She started to be
afraid and tears began to flow down her
little cheeks. She knew she was
lost. At first she just sat down on
a big flat rock and cried and cried, but
she knew that would not help her to find
her way home. She started out again,
snagging her shirt, it tore and she knew
mommy would be upset with her for ruining
her good shirt.
It
got darker, and the mountains, to a little
girl in the night can be so scary. Every
noise terrified her and besides that, it
was getting colder now that the sun had
gone down. She thought surely one of
the monsters that live in the mountains
would get her and take her deep into the
forest where she would never see her mommy
and daddy again. She kept looking
behind her and the tree limbs leaning
close to the ground began to look like
giants and she felt so small and
helpless. She felt like she had
walked a hundred miles. She was getting so
tired that she could hardly put one foot in
front of the other. She had cried
until she could cry no more and she was
chilled to the bone.
She
remembered something her Sunday School
teacher had said so many times.
"Jesus loves you and any time you
need Him all you have to do is pray and He
is right there in your heart and He will
hear you and help you." She
wondered if Jesus might help her
now. She was only a little girl, But
she had that Child's Faith that we so
often speak of. It's so easy for a
child to believe. When you tell them
to ask Jesus to come into their hearts,
and they do, then He is living there in
their hearts and to them, it is so real
and they just accept it. She remembered that she had
asked Jesus to come into her heart when
she was 6, only a year ago. When she
remembered He
was right there in her heart. Then
she wasn't as afraid. She just
started talking to Him as if he was
walking right beside her. And
of course He was.
"Jesus,
do you think Mommy and Daddy are mad at
me?" Would you maybe tell them
it wasn't my fault? You know Jesus,
I didn't really know how late it was, and
when it started getting dark, I really did
try to find my way home. Oh I hope
they will understand."
It
seemed as if she just felt in her heart
that Jesus was telling her that every
thing would be okay, she felt at peace now and as she stumbled upon a
little lean to that someone had built and
had put hay inside she thought this would
be a good place to sleep a while, she was
so tired and her little body had scratches
where she'd ran into tree limbs. And
bruises where she'd stumbled in the dark
over rocks and fell a few times. But
she wasn't afraid, Jesus was with
her.
She fell
asleep in the hay and it got colder
through the night and a light mist began
to fall making it even colder. She
was unaware of what was happening all
around that mountain community as she lay
there sleeping, warm in the love and protection of Jesus.
It
was October and the weather is so unpredictable that time of year.
It was warm when she had started out playing in the yard. She had on
jeans and a tee shirt but she was sleeping so soundly that the cold didn't
seem to bother her. She was dreaming of walking along a beautiful
path around a lake with Jesus holding her hand. He was talking to
her in a soft and low voice and she felt so safe and wonderful. As
they talked, she asked Him if this was what it would be like in heaven and
He told her that it was much this way. That He would always be there
for her to walk with or to talk to anytime she wanted and that in heaven
she would always be warm and happy and would never be lost or
afraid. She began to run and he ran with her and when she
wanted to skip pebbles across the water He skipped a few of his own.
He told her, "This reminds me of a story in the Bible, When
young David used small stones like this and a slingshot to kill the big,
mean old giant." She listened so intently to Him as He talked
to her. She was unaware that her body was getting so very cold and
she was in much danger. To her she was just there with Jesus,
running and skipping pebbles and talking and having a wonderful
time.
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