But Now Am Found -
4th chapter in "More Than Amazing Grace"
written by Lonnie Melashenko
The whole world watched in fingernail-biting anxiety as construction crews tried to rescue little Jessica McClure. Do you remember? Back in cold October of 1987, the story of the little eighteen-month old girl trapped in a well in Midland, Texas made headlines around the globe.
Little Jessica was lost in a certain kind way--everbody knew where she was, but for fifty-eight agonizing hours her parents just couldn't get to her. Sometimes that's the hardest kind of being lost for a parent to take.
Throughout this book we've been letting the words to "Amazing Grace," give us new insights into God's dealings with you and me. We've taken a look at a hard topic -- these four words: "I once was lost." And I know I took some comfort from realizing that later in the song we would have four much greater words to give us hope. "I once was lost ... but now am found."
As gut-wrenching as the word lost is, the word found is one of the most beautiful in the English language. I'm sure in every language around the world, the word for found is one of the sweetest.
What a moment it is when the shouts go up from the rescue team, "We found her!" When the ski patrol finally comes across the last victim up in the snow. When the helicopter finally plucks the last victim out of the freezing river. "We found him! The lost is found!
It feels so good to be found, doesn't it? To be safe in Mom's arms again. To sit in the back seat of the car, wrapped in a blanket and know that Dad is up front driving you to the safety of home, the warmth of your own bed. And especially when just an hour ago, you were lost. You were far away from home and from loved ones, facing loniliness and maybe even death. You were in the bottom of that well like little Jessica McClure. But now you're in your mother's arms again.
Friend, the Bible speaks with unabashed enthusiasm about the joy of finding that which was lost. Do you remember how the Good Shepherd leaves the ninty-nine sheep and goes to find the one that is lost? And when He does, what happens? He calls His friends and neighbors over and passes out refreshments and says to them, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep" (Luke 15:6).
We find the same thing in the parable of the lost coin. "Rejoice with me" (verse 9). And that's especially true in the precious parable of the prodigal son. Day after day the father is looking for him. While the bedraggled son is still "a long way off" (verse 20), the Bible says, the father sees him and goes running to greet him. And then the celebration begins. Remember? "Bring the best robe! Kill the fatted calf! Pull out all the stops, you servants! My son was dead and now is alive! Lost .... but now he's found!" (see verses 22-24).
The bottom line of this little trio of stories comes in verse seven: "I tell you," Jesus said to His disciples, " ..... there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."
You may want to say, "Pastor Melashenko, that's parable talk. That's a lovely metaphor -- 'rejoicing in heaven' -- but it's not real. There's not really a party in heaven over one person. Especially not over me."
Friend, I beg to differ with you. This is not simply sugar-coated poetic license or colorful, metaphor-flavored literature; this is the truth! Friend, God knows you! He knows where you are right now. And His rejoicing is real at the very moment when you choose to be found.
Right here is the crucial point, the beautiful nuance of "Amazing Grace" that maybe you have missed up until now. the third line reads this way: "I once was lost, but now am found."
Did you notcie that? You didn't stumble back to civilization yourself; Someone found you. Someone came looking.
Many of the lost-and-found stories we see on network television happened when the lost party, by his or her own heroic measures, made it back to camp. And sometimes people talk about a kind of spiritual journey where they try to "find themselves."
Oh, but not here, friend! Here in "Amazing Grace," we find a loving God who does the finding. You don't get yourself un-lost; He comes and personally finds you!
You know, part of this process of salvation -- in addition to discovering that we really are wretches and that we really are lost -- is coming to the realization that we can't rescue ourselvees. We are lost, and we can't get home by ourselves. The road is blocked; the telephone lines are down; we can't get across the swollen river. By our own efforts, we are not just lost, we are hopelessly lost. We are doomed in our lost condition.
But God comes looking! "I once was lost, but now am found." Just as in the story of the prodigal son, the Father is out looking for you. and while you are still a long way off, He sees you and comes running to the rescue. Here is what God says in Ezekiel 34:15,16:
"I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down," declares the Sovereign Lord. "I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak."
The much-loved nineteenth-century Christian writer E.G.White, penned these words in her classic book, The Desire of Ages: "Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Saviour died."
He knows you! Just as the shepherd knows his sheep, He knows you. He knows who you are and where you are. If you are lost, He knows it. And He is on His way to rescue you right now. You may have been lost, but you can be found. Right now.
My good pastor friend Morris Venden has written a book entitled Hard to Be Lost. It's hard to be lost, he suggessts when God is looking so hard for you. It's hard to be lost when so many people are praying for you. It's hard to be lost when all the armies of heaven have devoted themselves to this one rescue -- yours!
Have you ever played the board game "Sorry"? Your four little green men or blue men are out there on the board, vulnerable and lost. Even when you get them into your own row marked Safety, sometimes you still lose them. You get a "Backward 4 card and have to back out into the alleyway of danger.
But finally comes that sweet moment when you take them all the way into Home. Safely home! Now no one can take them out of that haven; no one can take them and say "Sorry." When you are home, everything is safe and secure.
Right now, you can go home. Not alone; no one can make it home alone. But because of the amazing grace displayed at Calvary, and because we have a good Shepherd and a loving Father who have formed a rescue party, home is very near. In fact, it's just around the corner; it's right up ahead. And the rescue team is running toward you!
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