Didn't I Search Until I Found You?

We were camping this last week in The Smokies. An area that I am not familiar with. I was watching my youngest daughter out of our tiny window, play at the edge of the woods. I walked through the camper, out the door, and around back and she was nowhere in sight. My husband took off in one direction, and I in another. After a few moments of not locating her, panic set in. I started running around the campground, and through the woods screaming her name. Still no sign of her. My mind was going in a million directions thinking of all of the horrible things that could have happened to her in those few moments. I thought someone must have been watching her to have taken her so quickly, and who knows where they could be?

I called our friends, we were there with, and told our surrounding campsites to start a small search party. We were along the banks of the stream, behind that was a hill, and then a small river. I felt for nearly ten minutes my greatest fear had just became my reality. She has always been a wanderer so I have always kept a close eye on her. How could I have let this happen?

My husband, took one last look over the hill, and there she was playing on the banks of the river. She couldn't hear us call her name, because the sound of the running water. What an overwhelming relief to have my baby back in my arms.

This morning, while sitting in church, the words from one of my favorite songs just kept rolling over and over in my mind.

"Didn't I search until I found YOU?"

You see, God is going to and fro searching for his lost children. Sometimes they are just playing along the banks, and unable to hear his voice. Sometimes they are completely submerged in the river unaware of how to escape the current. Sometimes the enemy has them held captive. 

BUT ALWAYS GOD....Will never stop searching until they are found! And oh what a feeling it is to be embraced in our fathers arms once again❤