"And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." // Matthew 18:13-14
“Where are the girls?”
All the adults immediately look at one another then jump into frantic action. We were wrapping up a vacation with some friends and loading up the luggage cart. We had propped open the door to our hotel room with the cart while the adults started dragging suitcases out and packing up to go.
My daughter and our friends’ daughter were only two-and-a-half at the time when we realized we did not know where they were. We started looking in the hotel room–behind curtains where they had played hide-and-seek earlier and in all the other areas of the room–NOPE.
Picture four frenzied parents spanning out in a large resort during the middle of winter trying to find two mischievous toddlers. I ran to the front of the hotel to alert security and the concierge. I may or may have not scared the staff by screaming to lock all the doors and not allow anyone in or out.
The others looked down hallways, in stairwells, and by the elevator. We gave the description of the girls to the staff so everyone could keep an eye out. At one point, from across the entire long hallway, we saw them running to the elevator, get it, and press buttons–BEFORE we made it to them.
Eventually, what felt like a zillion years later, but had frankly been only ten minutes, we found the girls sitting on a bench near an elevator, just chatting away in their sweet toddler voices. Trying not to scare them, I swept my daughter up in a huge hug and let out a gasp.
I would have done anything to find her. My heart broke in those minutes I could not.
Our Heavenly Father would do anything to find us again. And even as panicked as I was at the thought of my lost daughter, the Father is infinitely more in pursuit of us. He’ll go after your soul and your heart every minute of every day. He will find you.
Sister, let your loving Father pursue your heart. You are wholly loved and desired by the Father.
Let your loving Father pursue your heart. // @substance_soulClick to tweet
Dr. Samantha Aguinaldo-Wetterholm is a wife and mom to four little ones and practices dentistry at a public health community center for low income families in the Bay Area, California. She (unashamedly) thinks ice cream is its own food group and does not leave the house without wearing sparkly earrings. She was a contributing author to All She Had. and our children’s devotional prayer book called Rise Up. Find out more about her here.
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