Excuse me, I've lost my son

Josh and Hannah came with me to a just-for-fun bowling tournament on Anzac day (against my better judgement I might add) and I had to keep telling them to sit down and stop swinging on the banisters between each turn. Then after one go, I turned around and Josh wasn’t there. I asked Hannah to go check in the section where all the computer games were but he wasn’t there and I could not see him anywhere.

After a few frantic minutes of looking with no luck, I had to go to the lady at the service desk and say those dreaded words “excuse me, I have lost my son”. I felt like the worst mother! While I was trying to explain to the girl what he looked like (and trying to remember what colour shirt he had on), I heard his familiar cry and he came running out of the computer game area (see, I knew he would be in there!) bawling and saying “the man said No to me”.

Now, Im not sure who the man was, or why he said no to Josh, but Im really glad he did! He might have told Josh not to touch his game, or pointed out that Josh was in the wrong place, but the result was that Josh came running back to me and for that I am thankful!

Because I was telling Josh not to swing on the metal bar above a step, he thought I was spoiling his fun and so decided to do his own thing and play where HE wanted to play. But the only reason I asked him not to do that, was because I cared, and because I could see what was going to happen if he kept doing that. Josh was having fun until something came along which he didn’t know how to respond to, and then he realized that where he was, wasn’t the best place to be after all.

Sometimes we find out that where we are in life, isn’t where we want to be. Maybe something happens to you or a family member and you realize you don’t have the support or strength to deal with it.Maybe you have seen something in someone elses life that you just don’t have – like peace when finances are shaky, health is critical or life is threatened – like strength in difficult circumstances – like joy in the midst of sadness.

Josh thought he knew the most exciting place to be, but in reality it wasn’t the best or the safest place for him. You might think “nah, my life is fine thanks, I don’t need a God telling me what to do” but there is such a better option – with a God who cares for you, has the best in mind and has exciting stuff planned that you can do together! You can ignore that if you want to and keep living life the same way, or you could find out a bit more about this new way of living...