Have you ever wondered if God knows you’re lost in life? Does He know and does He care? Has He ever bothered to search for you, or has He written you off and moved on to someone else with more potential?
The meta-narrative of the Holy Bible is God’s relentless pursuit of love for those who are lost. Don’t underestimate how passionate He is about bringing you home to Himself
Doorstep Snatch
Little Guo Xinzhen was just two and half years old when he was abducted. It was Sunday, September 21, 1997, when an unknown woman approached the doorstep of the toddler’s home. He was playing near the door while his mother was preparing a meal inside. The stranger grabbed and kidnapped the toddler for her own greed.
The kidnapper and her boyfriend then transported the child to the Greater Beijing Area (pop. 130 million). They completed their dark transaction by selling Guo Xinzhen to a wealthy couple in Henan Province eight hours away where there’s a population of 99 million. We can only imagine how easy it would be for a child to ‘disappear’ in such densely populated areas.
Crushed Hearts
Back home in Liaocheng, Guo Xinzhen’s father and mother were devastated and crushed.
A frantic Mr. Guo and his wife, along with family, neighbours and friends, fanned out across the region to search for the boy. But after several months, the effort waned. That was when Mr. Guo attached large banners printed with his son’s photo to the back of a motorcycle and set out to find the boy on his own.
“Son, where are you?” the banners said, alongside an image of the boy in a puffy orange jacket. “Dad is looking for you to come home.” (1)
Guo Gangtang, the 27-year-old father, started his search carrying a flag on his motorcycle with his son’s photo and details, including “a scar on his left little toe.” (2) He gave out countless flyers about his missing son.
Relentless Search – Everything on the Line
Since 1997, the father wore out 10 motorcycles riding through 30 of China’s 34 provinces and regions. He begged for money and slept under bridges. He broke bones in traffic crashes, faced highway robbers.
Guo Gangtang scoured nearly all of China, travelling more than 300,000 miles by motorcycle in a decades-long hunt for his boy. That is the equivalent of crossing Canada 85 times or 43 round trips on a motorcycle from Newfoundland to BC.
In addition to Guo’s own resources, his own father continued to work into his seventies and other relatives too – all in an effort to finance the search for the one lost son.
Months turned into years and then one decade became two decades. His father was relentless in his pursuit. He would not stop looking.
Spiritual Reflection
Pause the story for a moment and consider a brief spiritual insight from the Word of God. Different metaphors are used in the Bible to paint vivid pictures on the canvas of our minds of God’s desire to locate and rescue every lost sinner. A shepherd searching for one lost sheep until he finds it. A person who has lost money and searching until she finds it. And a father scanning the horizons looking for a prodigal son to return home. In Luke Chapter 15, Jesus used those three story-pictures to illustrate God’s relentless pursuit to bring us home to Himself.
God did more than put everything on the line for lost sinners. In love for you and me, He sacrificially gave His only Son. The most well-known verse in the Bible is this one:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
Yes, God displayed His love for sinners, when His Innocent Son hung on the Cross in the place of guilty sinners.
He [God] who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
Real Father’s Heart
In 2015, Guo told reporters: “Only on the road, I felt I am a father. I have no reason to stop [searching]. And it’s impossible for me to stop.” (3)
Click on Image
English scholars may disagree with this but ‘love’ is a verb. Real love is not passive – it produces action. That’s what Guo was saying. How could a real father be passive about a lost son?
The Match – The Find
Experts searched massive databases for images of people who looked similar to how Guo Xinzhen might look as an adult. In June 2021 they found a match. His identity was positively identified by a DNA test. Yes, out of 1.4 billion people, this 26-year-old-man was the two-and-a-half-year-old toddler who had been stolen 24 years earlier.
Incredible Joy
It’s no surprise that a joyful reunion was planned. After two decades of dark grief and relentless searching, it was time to celebrate as they prepared for the dreamed-about reunion. In advance, the exuberant parents bought more than 1,000 pounds of celebratory candy to give to their neighbours. Mr. Guo also cleaned out his home, tossing out old belongings to commemorate a new beginning.
On Sunday, July 11, 2021, the parents buried their heads into Guo Xinzhen’s shoulder and joyfully wailed after 24 exceedingly long years of not having him to embrace.
My darling, my darling, my darling,” Mr. Guo’s wife, Zhang Wenge, sobbed as she embraced the young man. “We found you, my son, my son.” (4)
“Our child has been found,” the father said. “From now on, only happiness is left.” (5)
Spiritual Insights to Consider
Luke, a medical doctor, wrote one of the four Gospels in the New Testament of the Bible. His account of the life of Jesus focuses on one-on-one interventions of the Great Physician and the Good Shepherd. He seems to emphasize single encounters the Saviour had with individuals in distress and in need.
One of the most famous stories in the Bible (Luke 15 – you can read it below.) – the story of the Prodigal Son touches a chord in all our hearts. Those who have wounded their parents’ hearts by storming out of their childhood home to selfishly live their own lives of pleasure – they connect with the story. Others who have experienced the emptiness of fleeting relationships and glistening bubbles of night-life fun – they see themselves in the story Jesus told. Those who are experiencing a certain lostness and a longing desire for peace and security and love – the story is about them. Some who are bothered about their sins and how they have offended God, just like the son in the story, think about repentance. Coming clean, being real and humbly repenting towards God is their experience in their pursuit of His forgiveness and acceptance.
Lost Sheep on Life’s Road to Eternity. Isaiah 53:6
Perhaps on a spiritual level, you have wondered – if I come to God as a straying and lost sinner – how will He respond?
In the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke Chapter 15, Jesus paints a beautiful picture of God’s heart of love towards lost sinners. It is the grieving heart of a loving father scanning the horizon, day after day, for the first sight of his lost son returning home. Everything is ready for the celebration if and when the son returns. And when he does, the father sees him from a long distance away and runs and runs and runs to meet him. He throws his loving arms around his long-lost son and kisses him repeatedly.
Loved, forgiven and accepted?
Totally! Not just accepted – embraced!
That is God’s heart towards every sinner on Planet Earth. Waiting and longing for them to come home.
Has there been a spiritual coming home for you? Have you come in repentance to God and trusted His Son as your personal Saviour? Have you felt the warmth of His welcoming embrace? If not – why not now?
(Scroll below to read the story Jesus told in Luke 15)
Sources:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/world/asia/guo-gangtang-china.html
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/chinese-parents-abducted-son-reunited-after-24-years-1.5508471
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/14/chinese-father-guo-gangtang-finds-kidnapped-son/
- ibid.
- ibid.
Prodigal Son – Luke Chapter 15 – Holy Bible
Luke 15:11-24 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. (12) The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
(13) “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. (14) About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. (15) He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. (16) The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
(17) “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! (18) I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, (19) and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”‘
(20) “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. (21) His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ (22) “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. (23) And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, (24) for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.