Red Hair and a Dirty Face

She was about 5 years old, dirty, missing one of her front teeth, and so frightened. She began to cry when she realized she was alone and maybe lost. Every time I tried to approach her she ran away with a look of pure terror on her face. Piet urged me from inside the car to keep trying.

About 5 minutes earlier, we received a call from Isaac, a good friend and YMS leader, that we had left something at the youth house. We had just arrived home from a whole afternoon of Saturday Live and I was really tired, and the reality was that we could pick it up in the morning when we were there for church. But I decided that we could go and get it quickly. But there she was: this tiny little thing with pale skin and the brightest of red hair walking at the end of the dirt road from our house. We wondered if she had run away from home. We were also scared that she would dart out into the busy road at the end of our country road, as she stood just feet from on-coming traffic contemplating her next move. I tried asking her where her mommy was, but she would only point and then run quickly away from me. I don’t blame her for running away. She had never seen me before and how would she know that I didn’t want to hurt her? After many times of trying to talk to her, Piet got out of the car and moments later we noticed a police bakkie driving on the main road. We flagged it down and they were ready for action. We showed them this fragile thing walking away from us a few meters down the road. She resisted a bit when the police came toward her, but I was surprised that she eventually took his hand and walked back to the bakkie. He asked me to speak to her, but she only spoke Afrikaans, so Piet spoke to her and she said she wanted her mommy. They took her with them into their vehicle to take her home.

After they drove away we continued on to the youth house. As I was driving I got really emotional and misty-eyed just thinking about how Jesus had put everything together perfectly that we were all there at exactly the right time. What if we hadn’t been there to find her? What if we had decided to wait until morning to go? What is she wandered into the street? I got really overwhelmed that God really does care about each sparrow and every lost sheep.

Today, he left the 99 to rescue the one snotty-nosed, dirty, but very precious child with no shoes lost in search for her mommy.

Love finds the lost,

The Bakers