can we lose Jesus?

"Why were you searching for me?" he asked.

"Didn't you know I had to be

 in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49)

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I have always been intrigued by the story in Luke 2:41-52. I never could understand how a mother could lose her son, but then again, her Son wasn't just any son. He was Jesus. But still, how could she lose Jesus? Pretty much the same way we lose Him.

If we have a personal relationship with Him, we can't lose Him in relationship, but we can certainly lose Him in fellowship. Broken fellowship with our Savior can be the beginning of a long slide down a slippery slope. When that happens the result is that we become miserable in our lives. We lose our joy. We lose our direction. All because we temporarily lost Jesus.

Who can lose Him? Anybody can. Sometimes it's the least one you would expect. The preacher, the worship leader, a deacon. Just like Noah, David, Samson and Peter. None of us are beyond the capability to lose Him.

Another interesting fact about the story is that they lost Him at church! It seems absurd, but in reality, that's where most of us lose Him. We get mad at the preacher. We don't like the songs we sang during worship. We don't like the way business meeting was conducted.. And the list goes on and on. The one place we shouldn't lose our Savior is in church. We won't always agree with everyone. We won't always like the choice of music or the message that was preached. But we don't have to lose Jesus in the process.

There are several ways that we can be assured we don't lose Him. We don't ever need to travel without Him.  We guard against this by not neglecting our prayer life. Not neglecting our bible reading.  And never neglecting to be in His presence.

Of course, my favorite part of the story is when they find Him. And He was right where they left Him. When we lose Jesus, the way we find Him is just that simple. We go back to where we left Him. Back to where we first found Him. Back to the point of our salvation experience. 

"Restore unto me the joy

of thy salvation; and uphold

me with thy free spirit"

(Psalm 51:12) KJV

When we get on our faces and ask the Lord to bring us back to that joyful moment when we first accepted Him, He is there to reach out to us. God will lovingly restore us back to the joy of our salvation. We find Him and we hold onto Him tighter than before. More determined than ever keep Him close. Not wanting to risk losing Him again.

Oh, sweet Lord, thank you for being a restoring God. Thank you for being found by us when we seek you. You are mighty and powerful and worthy of all honor and praise.