Psalm 119:176

Psalm 119:176 “I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.”

When I was in college, I took a summer job in Yellowstone making change and filling vending machines at the coin laundry at one of the tourist stops. On one of my days off, I decided to walk the trail along both sides of the Canyon, crossing above the upper falls. Since my co-workers and I all had different days off, I went alone.

I was fine as long as the trail was within hearing distance of the road, but after a while the trail and the road parted ways. It was quiet. Nobody else was out walking then, and I started to worry about bears. This was a reasonable concern, because bears frequented that area enough that tourists were not allowed to camp there with tents or tent-trailers. Only hard-sided campers were permitted. My fear grew with each step I took in the silence, and I knew that I needed to make some kind of noise so any bears wouldn’t be taken by surprise and attack.

It had been four years since I’d been to church, and I never thought about God back then. But as I searched for a song to sing to keep the bears away, only two songs came to mind: “The B-I-B-L-E” and “Jesus Loves Me.” They were all I remembered from my growing-up years in Sunday School. So I sang them, over and over, as long as the trail kept me away from other people, and I was comforted.

There have been other times, too, in my life when I’ve wandered away from the Lord without even noticing. All of a sudden I’ll look around and see that I’m alone, lost in a wilderness of my own making, not knowing how to get back. And all I can do is cry out, “Lord, come and find me!” And the joy is that He comes and leads me back into the fold.

Have you been wandering? When you look around at your spiritual life, what do you see? Is there only a bleak emptiness you don’t recognize? Remember the word of the Lord and call out to Him. He will come and find you, because He’s already there.

May you always stay close to your Shepherd.

Brenda