Missing

By David A. Sargent

    The Roseville, California Police Department recently posted a plea on Facebook asking the public for help to locate a missing elderly woman. The police explained that the woman, Glenneta Bedford, age 97, suffers from dementia and is mostly non-verbal. “Recently she's been known to hide or hunker down in a location,” was another point in the post.
    Some children in Roseville learned about the search and decided to conduct a search of their own. Logan Hultman, Kashton Claiborne and Makenna Rogers, who are all 10, and 11-year-old Hope Claiborne set out in their surrounding neighborhoods searching for Bedford. They eventually found her a few blocks away from their homes, hiding in some bushes.
    “She was right here and she was walking and she was talking to herself. And then when we came, she said, ‘No, no, no. Go away, go away, go away,'" Kashton told FOX40.
    Hope reported their find. “I called 911 and I said that I found this missing woman,” she told FOX40.
    Thanks to these junior detectives, the police were able to post an update just a little over two hours after Bedord had been reported missing: the missing person has been located. She is safe and has been reunited with her family. Many thanks to the public for their assistance in locating her.”
    Logan’s mother, Alyssa Hultman, asked her son why he and his friends responded to the call to search for the missing woman. “He looked at me like I was almost crazy and said, ‘Because somebody needed help, Mom. And when people need help, you go and help them. That’s what we do,’” Hultman told FOX40.
    When Jesus saw the multitudes, “He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Jesus saw that people were lost and could not find their way. That describes our condition in our sins: we are lost.
    But that’s why Jesus came to us. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In order to save us, Jesus had to give His life for our sins so that we might have forgiveness and receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16; 10:17-18).
    God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).
    When we were lost in our sins, Jesus came to find us and save us. That’s what love does.
    Don’t “miss” the opportunity to be “found” by Him. Surrender your life to the Good Shepherd. He will lead you home.

- David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled "Living Water." To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org

* Information gleaned from “California 'team of junior detectives' help find missing 97-year-old woman with dementia” by Travis Fedschun of Fox News, www.foxnews.com