When you were a kid, did you ever get lost in the store?
You know the moment. You’ve wandered away even though your parents told you not to and all the sudden you look up and realize they’re missing.
I remember a time that it happened and I’m pretty sure I was in a hardware store. I had gone there with my dad and somehow he went somewhere that I didn’t follow. Or perhaps it was me that left; I’m not sure. What I do know is that I looked up, grabbed the pant leg of someone who I thought was him, and quickly discovered that it wasn’t.
At that moment, my world began falling apart. If I could’t find my dad, it meant that I couldn’t find anything. He was my touch stone – knowing where he was is how I made sense of the long aisles filled with what seemed like an unending supply of nails, screws and other home improvement paraphernalia. I immediately began my quest to right this wrong. I intently looked for the familiar baseball cap and an outfit like he would wear. I was careful to scan faces so I didn’t mistakenly identify someone else as him for the second time. My pursuit of him was relentless, and thankfully, short. I quickly found him, and everything was once again o.k. with my world.
In the moment though – for those few seconds when I realized that I had no earthly clue where my father was and that in all likelihood he didn’t know where I was – I had a single-minded pursuit. I needed to find my dad.
As a Christian, I still need that single-minded focus. I need it to diligently and relentlessly pursue my Father in Heaven. Nothing else matters in comparison to running after Him. I need to be intent on seeking Him, much like I was intent on finding my dad after I lost him in the store. Just as my dad was the way that I navigated the long aisles, God is the touch point for navigating the aisles of life. Without Him, all the stuff that surrounds me doesn’t make sense. With Him, I can trust that I will get safely Home.
When you’re pursuing something like I was pursuing my father, you look for any sign of that which you are seeking. You don’t pay attention to anything else – but only to those things that will lead you to the one that you are after. May we have a similar intensity as we pursue God and what He has for us. Knowing that just like any good Dad, not only is He displeased when His children wander off, but when they do, He’s pursuing them too.