On a cold December day, ten years ago, Keith and Jennifer Lee of Medford, Oregon were driving home on an isolated mountain road, with a freshly cut “Silver Tipped” Christmas tree tied to the top of their Subaru SUV. The Lees were returning from their annual Christmas tree hunt with a rare trophy highly prized by Christmas Tree lovers. Their four children were eagerly waiting for them at home, but became concerned when a one day outing turned into two days and two days into three. It seems the Lees were rounding a curve on the rugged mountain road and somehow found themselves stuck in ditch filled with two feet of snow. Their all-wheel-drive vehicle simply could not get them out!
This was not the first time the couple had gotten themselves into trouble on such a winter quest. Just a year before that, they had gotten lost on another snowy mountain road while hunting down the perfect Christmas Tree and couldn’t find their way out of the thick mountain forest, and they had no emergency supplies with them. Fortunately search parties found them early on, and they made it home with a fine Christmas tree. But thinking that they had learned their lesson the following year and in an effort to outsmart the mountains, they took along a cell phone with a GPS, some blankets and 24 bottles of water, but they didn’t plan to get stuck in a ditch or to be out of the range of a cell phone tower.
On the third day out in the harsh cold boonies, Keith managed to figure out a way to free his vehicle and the Lees were finally heading home. Once in range of a cell tower, they called 911 and learned that an aggressive round the clock effort by the Oregon state police had been initiated to locate them. Everyone was quite relieved because there was real concern for their survival, if indeed they were lost.
The Bible tells us that all of us are born into a world of sin and darkness. In short we come into the world, spiritually lost. We are lost in sin and in danger of certain judgment, but the good news is summed up in the words of Jesus, who said,
For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10 NKJV
God the Father loved us so much that He sent His own Son to find us and rescue us from the curse sin brought upon human race. God’s desire is to save us and to bring us safely and surely to His home, where we might live with Him for all eternity.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
John 3:16-17 NIV
Hidden Arrows 