A Journal Entry

A friend of mine, Gary Heaton, was reading a journal entry he’d made back in 1977 as he attempted to relate his feelings about his children. The whole family had gone camping and it was time to pack up and head for home when he realized that his youngest boy was missing; not that uncommon for that particular boy who liked to wander off and be on his own.

Gary started to look around; first calling his name and then going down by the edge of the lake where the boy often would enjoy quiet times by himself. He found the boy’s shoes at the water’s edge and a lump formed in his throat; knowing that the boy had been warned about venturing in. A mild panic overtook Gary as he alerted some local fishermen and other campers to fan out and help find his son.

Being a parent is difficult as we all want and hope the best for our children. We worry about them and dark thoughts come to our minds the moment uncertainty involving their safety or whereabouts spring up. As Gary related his journal entry, reading as best he could between the tears of his emotions; I found my own emotions gathering in empathy.

The search area expanded over the next half hour, the fear of something terrible having happened grew more real with each passing moment. Gary had knelt in prayer to request help from above, to provide a safe return of his son. At this precise moment, I should say at this moment of relating this story, Gary stopped reading from his journal and compared the event to our own lives. Are we not children of our Heavenly Father, a Father who desires our safe return, no different than any other loving and caring parent who has temporarily lost contact and is searching for that child?

After having prayed and resumed the search, deeper into the wooded areas and along the main road that led to the lake, Gary was prompted to return to the lake and try once more. The knowledge that he had found the boy’s shoes left at the water’s edge began to creep back into his mind; knowing that the boy had not learned to swim, thoughts of how the family would cope with the loss of one so young were nearly too much for him to relate.

As he walked those lonely steps back toward the lake he continued to call out the boy’s name and he thought he heard a faint reply. His heart strings desperately needed to hear the boy’s voice and he thought his mind was playing tricks on him for there along the path, the path he had just come down and was returning on, there was his son standing barefoot with his arms out stretched and so glad to see him. I admit that I was unable to contain my own tears as this reunion was retold this morning; so glad that there was a happy ending.

Our lives are important to our Heavenly Father as He surely considers the dangers we face here in mortality. Does He worry about our safe return; as we worry about our own children, I believe it is a certainty. Will He grieve at the loss of even one of us for having strayed into areas that will snatch us away from Him; the sins of this world, great and small; again, the answer is obvious. It is my hope that we consider the opportunities we have, the choices we make as we ponder our relationship to a Heavenly Father who’s only desire is our safe return. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.