Lost and Found

By Doreen Fraser

Have you ever felt confused and uneasy about your identity, feeling a little lost and lonely in the midst of a revved up community where all are frantically trying to make sense of who they are?  So what do we usually do?  We join them, because being ignored is painful.  We develop an image of who we would like to be, and we project it into the circle of our relationships.  Whether we know it or not, we have now assumed a pseudo-identity.  We feel that maybe this will bring the happiness and satisfaction that has long eluded us.  Strangely, it does not. 

Do you know that one of the most blessed things that can happen to us is trouble?  It brings us to a point of naked ‘rawness’ from which a deep and needy cry can arise - a cry for God.  Do you know that He will always answer that cry?  You can hear Him say, ‘you are my lost child, and now I have found you.’

When the prodigal son, that Jesus spoke of, returned home, the father said, ‘this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’.  What joy this produced in the household!  Luke 15:24  One of the most rewarding aspects of being found by God is that I no longer have to maintain a pretense of identity.  I can start being my real self – the person who was fashioned by God in Christ.  Identity has found me!  Now I can be truly known by God and those around me.