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| image from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26503141 |
‘Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41
on Saturday (16:41 GMT Friday), and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30
(22:30 GMT). Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost contact less than an hour
after takeoff’ [BBC News Website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26503141]
Four letters – lost! This is a short word, but one that none of us
really want to hear. We can cope with ‘missing’. In that latter word there is a
glimmer of hope. As long as something is missing, we can hold out the hope that
it may be found. Indeed, for the relatives of those who were part of Flight
MH370, we would prefer to think that the plane may be found. No one wants to
hear that wreckage has been found, and all passengers have been lost.
The word, and the situation for the relatives, made me think. The Bible
describes each of us as ‘lost’. We are away from God. Sadly, some people have
even come to believe the lie that there is no God, or that ‘God is dead’, as the
humanist advert suggests. All that such ideas indicate is that we are ‘lost’. We
are so far away that God has ‘dropped off the radar’ for so many people! The
Bible puts it simply: our sin has separated us from God, and, like sheep, we
are wandering further and further away from Him. The consequences of such a
situation are far greater than people realize. As lost sinners, God will hold
us to account one day. The pathway we may have chosen to-date could cost us
dearly in the life beyond this one!
However, the good news is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man, came
‘to seek and to save that which was lost’. Unlike the search services of the
nations of the world, God can pinpoint us – He knows exactly where we are, and
has provided a Saviour to meet us, to save us, and to bring us back to Himself. When Jesus Christ died upon that Roman cross outside Jerusalem some
2000 years ago, He died to take the penalty for your sin and mine – to remove
that cause of distance between us and God.
I wonder whether you realize that you are ‘lost’. To be lost does not
involve geographic location, it involves spiritual location – away from God
because of our failures, our sin. You may not appreciate it, but God is interested
in you. He wants you to find Him. Will you?
As time goes by, hope for the passengers of Flight MH370 grows slimmer.
In a similar way, as you get on with life ignoring, or even rejecting God, many
opportunities for salvation are slipping away. It is one thing to be lost. It
is a far worse thing when all hope is lost!
