Jayna’s Story

Posted by Tia Ciferno and filed in Encouragement for Daily Living

In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. Mathew 18:14

Last month my brother Sean and his wife and daughters arrived here from Germany. The very next day we were visiting at my father’s house when we noticed that Sean’s daughter, Jayna, was missing. After a search throughout the house and yard we got in the car and began to scour the neighborhood for the spunky ten-year old, whom we suspected had accidentally let the dog out of the fence, chased her, and then had become lost in the unfamiliar neighborhood.

Sean and Darlene were shopping at the time, and my nephew Isaac and I prayed we would find their daughter before they came home! We also prayed intensely for Jayna’s safety, that she would make good decisions and not panic. And we recited Psalm 56:3…”When I am afraid, I will trust in God.”

For almost two hours, three groups canvassed for blocks and blocks, on foot and by car, asking dozens of people if they’d seen a little girl with a shaggy dog, yelling “Jaaaaaaayyna!” out the car windows, and looking up driveways, through yards, and across streets.

What JOY we felt when my daughter Julia came running up to our van with the news that Jayna was at the police station! Jayna had knocked on the door to a home after wandering for miles…weary, in tears, and very hot from the scorching afternoon sun. A man named Charlie came to the door and Jayna asked him if he could take her to her grandfather’s house.

“He lives by the church,” she said.

Since Charlie had no idea which church she was talking about, he took her downtown to the station, and the police called my father.

Four of us made the trip to retrieve my niece. She came out of the security door barefoot, surrounded by blue-shirted policemen and holding Lulu by the leash.

Jayna ran up to me and crumbled into a heap of sobs in my arms. We arrived at my father’s two minutes before Sean and his wife pulled in the driveway from their errands. Another answer to prayer. They never had a moment of anxiety.

The rest of the evening was spent talking about Jayna’s adventures and our feelings while she was lost. What a deep sense of helplessness to have someone you love completely removed from your sight, unable to answer when you call to them, so unbelievably separated. It gives such a “knock-the-breath-out-of-you” feeling. We would have given anything to see her face…to FIND her.

It made us think of the fact that we were also lost…and our God experienced that same gut-wrenching pain at our separation, our “lostness” from Him. So much that He sent Jesus to find us…to bring us Home. So He could look at our face for eternity.

There is one added dimension of this story. Later that night we tracked Jayna’s journey and discovered that she had walked up my street, which is a mile from my father’s home. She told me that she recognized my house and went in for a drink! Then she left again and wandered, crying, until she finally knocked on Charlie’s door.

How many times have we been safe in the Arms of our Father, and then left Him to wander again in the world? I was so shocked to hear that Jayna had found safety and left it. I spoke a bit loudly when I questioned her. “You were in my house and you left??? WHY DID YOU LEAVE?”
She answered with such a matter a fact manner, it made me feel silly.

“Because,” she said, “there was nobody home!”

Well, we know that the Lord is always Home, and always wanting us to be at Home with Him.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. Luke 19:10