Who Will Lead the Way Home?

By Tanja

Recently I went to visit a church that I don’t usually go to, and the pastor preached a message. One of the real-life experiences that he told was similar to what I had experienced in my life too. His story involved getting lost when he was a young boy, and on the way to finding his destination of being found, he was helped by the police and got ice cream. The reason he told this story was to show that when people are lost without God- their feelings of being lost are evident, it is a sinking feeling.

I understood precisely this feeling of being lost, for I felt the same in my story.  Can I tell you my story?

I was a child of eight or nine living in Japan. There was a place that the kids loved to go, and this site was called “Pom- Pom- Yama”, it was a mountain that had rock pools, the water was crisp and fresh.

I think all of us kids knew the town we were in very well; I think there still are traces of the map of the place in my mind even today.

Sometimes we would go to the mountain for our swim with our bikes.

One day, after a swim on at Pom Pom Yama, I was riding my bike confidently with everyone else. I must have been a little ahead of everyone else because I took a turn and was left on my own.

I kept riding my bike down the mountain. It was strange no one was coming after me, but I kept riding hoping I had my directions right. When I got down to the village below, I could not recognise the place.

I am lost?

I just don’t know where to turn!

The feeling was frightening.

I had come to a Japanese lady’s house and possibly tried to explain I was lost. She gave me ice cream and called the police. Even though I had ice cream. I was scared, uncomfortable and not happy. But I was comforted just little by ice cream.

I’m not sure how the policeman knew how to bring me home. I lived near the shopping street. I suppose that’s all the information I knew how to give. No address. But I did get back. The policeman got me home.

When I heard the message of the pastor I mentioned at the beginning, I could relate to an experience of being lost. The experience of being lost, especially as a child is not comfortable.

Jesus is the one who leads and brings us home, in a spiritual sense. Jesus is said to be the way, the truth and the life.

John 14:6

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.””

Maybe we don’t understand how Jesus does it. Like in my story; my policeman was able to save me from being lost in a village in Japan, even though I didn’t give him much detail.

Isaiah 53:6

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus might be like that strong, brave policeman, who can guide us home to the Father where we belong. He is the good Shephard of your soul. If you’re lost, let Him help you find your way back home.