camping in the mountains of Colorado

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, my family was camping in the mountains of Colorado...

 

We have arrived there late in the afternoon, and we picked out a nice spot close to a beautiful river.  While I was attending to the chores of setting up and organizing our camp, the children went off to play. 

 

As the sun began to set, we started rounding up the children and hustling them back into our campground before it got completely dark.  Our four-year-old son, Scott, was missing.  The river was making so much noise that my calls were drowned out, and its roar was a constant reminder of danger.

 

Panic began to build.  Where was he?  Had he wandered out of the campground?  Had he wandered up or down the river?  The last time I saw him, he was playing at the edge of the water with a little boat he had made.

 

By now you could barely distinguish the camp as the rays of the setting sun were further blocked by the forest.  A chilling reality gripped me.  I only had a few minutes before darkness made my search nearly impossible.

 

What should I do?

 

First, I want to tell you some of the things I did not do.

 

I did not organize any classes on how to find lost children.

I did not hold any rallies to enlist volunteers to help me.

I did not wait until someone came along with was better qualified than I to search.

I did not fail to do anything for fear of doing the wrong thing.

 

Now, I want to tell you what I did do.

 

I acted immediately. 

I ran around the campground. 

I dashed up and down the river. 

I called Scott's name, in spite of the roaring river. 

I searched the churning waters. 

I stopped total strangers to describe him, and they joined in the search. 

 

Nothing else mattered for that period of time.  Finding him was my top priority.

 

After running all over the campground and up and down the river, I still could not find him.  Not knowing what else to do, I decided to go back to camp to figure out what to do next.  Scott and I arrived at the same time.  He was walking nonchalantly into our campground, oblivious to everything; I was still on a dead run.

 

An old preacher once said, "If a man has a soul, and he has, and if that soul can be won or lost for eternity, and it can, then the most important thing in the world is to bring a man to Jesus Christ."  (Don Humphrey)

 

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).

 

Mike Benson

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