I was in for a worry fest today. I allowed my son to go biking with a friend. He then came home and asked for the fishing pole so he and his friend could fix it. I honestly thought they would just be outside, by the lake. That was before noon. The hours dragged and Seti still did not come home. I had no idea where he was except that he brought his bike and the fishing pole. As I was preparing dinner, thoughts of worst case scenarios barraged my head with fears of the unknown.
My son has never disappeared this long before without me knowing where he was. My husband came home from work and right after dinner, we went around the complex looking for him. We went to the pool, passed by a couple of friends’ house and with no luck, we went home. He’d been gone for 6 hours and we didn’t know his whereabouts! We sat on the couch conversing and I was to the point of crying for regretting permitting him to even go outside. I tried to divert my thoughts of worry by going online and looking for deals on sergers. Then I looked out the window and made a quick prayer to God to forgive me for how I had spent my day minding worthless things. I also prayed that we would find Seti. This was truly a quick prayer if anything.
After that, I decided to get up from where I was sitting and opened the door and lo and behold, there was Seti, across the lake with his friend. I went inside really quick and told my husband about how I had just made a quick prayer and God answered me. Finding him brought tears to my eyes, not only because I was overcome with relief that he was okay but because yet again, God manifested Himself by answering even a quick prayer. This makes me think of how the father of the wayward, prodigal son was overcome with joy when he saw him coming from afar after being gone for awhile to a distant land. How the Lord rejoices over the lost who happens to find their way back to Him.
We are fortunate that we have an omniscient God, who unlike us knows and sees all things, disciplines us if need be that we might not wander too far off from His mercies and the confines of His will for our lives, and always gives us the necessary measures that we may learn to always turn back to Him in all situations and circumstances. Not only did God answer my prayer but also my husband’s prayer that we would find Seti so we could discipline him.