Recently a teacher, Nathan Clark, went missing without a trace Saturday evening on the 25 of February on our quaint and quiet island. As we all watched the story unfold, the police investigated and his fiancee strained to make sense of the strange disappearance of someone standing with her one moment and gone the next. Naturally concern grew in the hearts of those living here in Cayman. A plan was formed by the Royal Cayman Islands Police and volunteers were requested to gather at Public Beach to begin going over the surrounding areas with a fine tooth comb in hopes of finding a clue or better yet, Nathan himself. The CCTV camera footage was poured over for hours upon hours by local businesses in the vicinity, posters were put up all over with a picture of his face and all those who had been with him that evening wracked their brains trying to recollect anything that may be helpful in his whereabouts.
Wanting to help in some way, I decided to become part of the search crew and join in the efforts to locate Nathan. My goal was to pray and to plead with God to give this poor family some answers as to where their loved one could have gone whilst participating in the search. We crowded around the detective in charge at the beach where he went missing to receive our instructions as to where we will be looking and what we would be looking for. Forming a line arm's length apart from each other, approximately 60 people filed next to one another and began walking a wooded area full of bushes, trees and shrubbery indigenous to the island. As we dug through the bush, climbed and crawled looking in every nook and cranny for anything related to Nathan, something dawned on me. As Christians, this is precisely how we should be treating the spiritually lost of the world.
Jesus knows where Nathan is and He has a purpose for what has happened. We don't know what that purpose is and we may not see the bigger picture now, but that doesn't mean that we sit back and just wait for something happen. There are funds being raised, emails circulating, press coverage and continued efforts to support the family of this missing man and find their loved one.
Just the same, there are lost souls all over just waiting to be found. The Word of God tells us that faith comes by hearing. No one can come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God who has died to reconcile a broken and sinful people to a Holy and Righteous God if we don't bring them that news. The purpose of God's redeemed people is to spread the awesome message that there is a resurrected Savior who has offered a free gift of eternal life! He has paid for all of our sins on Calvary's Cross and has atoned for all the sins of all the world since the beginning of time until He returns. He is the ONLY One who could satisfy God's wrath and make the perfect sacrifice to redeem us for eternity being sinless and perfect Himself. We cannot possibly keep that amazing news to ourselves. If we really grasp the urgency of the message of Christ and the danger that so many face not knowing Him on the day Jesus returns, we would be frantically searching for all those who are missing from the Kingdom and hold out the Only thing that can bring them home-Jesus Christ.
"The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise." Proverbs 15:29-31
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14
