The Lost Sheep

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?"

- Luke 15:4, NKJV.

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"Mama, don't lose me!" My three year old was running between the pews in the empty sanctuary, getting farther away from me, until all I could see was her pig-tails bobbing above the pews. She was having fun until she realized how far away she had strayed. That's when she cried out, "Mama, don't lose me!"
Throwing my head back in laughter, I responded, "No, I won't lose you. Never!"
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Is that how I sound to my Heavenly Father when I stray away from Him and cry out in the midst of peril, "Abba, don't lose me!"
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Perhaps that is the way Fanny J. Crosby felt as she was writing the hymn "Draw Me Nearer." "Draw me nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou has died."
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When Christ was on the cross, He cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) Which, in a three year old's vocabulary, sounds a lot like "Why have you lost me?" Now transfer that thought to a forty year old shaking her fists at God and screaming the same thing. It happens. But God never loses us. That was another consequence of the cross that Christ suffered for us: God left Christ, briefly, so that he would never have to leave or forsake us. He never will.
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Let me encourage you who are downhearted to truly seek God. He is there. The Old Testament is full of stories of God's people who've strayed and then turned back to seek Him and He was there. He does not "lose" His children.