I just saw a post about human trafficking being so bad in Florida right now. I am taken back a bit when I remember a time when one day one of my cousins went missing. That sinking feeling that washes over you is overwhelming and I cannot or do not want to ever think about someone close being abducted! I cannot imagine what these poor families are going through and the loss in their hearts!
My cousin was maybe 5 or 6 and younger than me when it seemed like all of the sudden she was gone! Everyone searched everywhere! I remember walking down the road, looking under and in everything in the house, hollering as loud as everyone could.
The panic in my Aunt’s eyes sent chills through my spine wondering what could have happened to her. Back then, you didn’t really have abductiins or kidnappings and the thought of that was more to the back burner than the idea of her wondering off somewhere. I think the older cousins scoured the woods and ran to neighbors checking but no luck.
The house was turned inside out and double checked, so we thought, and there was noise of screaming and hollering out her name everywhere! I can’t remember how many hours we spent looking and it seemed for many. Then just like that, she appeared from laying across several kitchen chairs from falling asleep!
You talk about relief yet the astonishment of the fact that everyone checked under the table yet missed that one! There was a table cloth on the table if I recall and I remember even myself pushing it under but not looking up onto the seats but just under! How in the world she slept so sound was beyond us all because the kitchen was full of people talking and planning routes to look! I can recall one time when she fell asleep in a tree. She was one who could easily nap anywhere.
I was taught a few lessons that day. The first was to thank The Lord always and to never give up. The second was to cherish your family and even though some may be annoying, you always love, and thirdly was one that reinforced God’s plans for me to be more sympathetic for others than myself. Teens tend to be quite self centered and I was no different. It was a tiny step to my later in life realization that worrying and wondering who was talking about me didn’t matter. It was a tiny step in realizing that those who picked on me were no better and they were God’s children just as I was. It was a tiny step to His grace!
My heart goes out to these families whose family members go missing! This world needs more God and less Satan because those who take or harm children or others and don’t have God’s grace and forgiveness are doomed! Please join me today and each day forward to pray for the victims and their families!
