Lost things—and lost people—don’t always know they’re lost. But the one who has lost them knows. Sheep don’t know they’re lost, but the shepherd does. A lost coin doesn’t know it’s lost, but its owner does. The prodigal son didn’t think he was lost. He thought he was living it up and enjoying the adventure of a lifetime, but if you had asked his father, he would have said, “My son is lost.” Where was the father when his son was lost? Some would argue that he never left home, never went after his boy. But I believe the father was in the far country, too. Not a day or night went by that the father was not with his younger son in his heart.

Loved ones who are left behind know their own special kind of lost-ness. The wife of a man who fights in a foreign country goes to that country in her thoughts a thousand times a day. The loved one of a hostage is held hostage, too. The parent of a sick child fights disease just as surely as their boy or girl does, and feels every pain. Day after day, hour after hour, the father of the prodigal was in the far country, too. He was suffering the anguish and emptiness of being separated from His son. That’s a human picture of the supernatural love of God. And here is what is amazing about our loving God. He sent His Son to rescue us – to pay the penalty for our sin on the cross and to restore us to a right relationship with the Father.

Are you lost and don’t realize it? Do you know that love that God offers us through the life, death and resurrection of His only Son? Please don’t let another day go by without recognizing the supernatural love of God. Jesus has been sent by the Father to save us from our own self-destruction and lost-ness. Isn’t it time you let Him bring you home?