Lost Son

She had not seen him in twelve years. He was six years old when he was separated from his mother, and he was eighteen when he stepped off the bus and started asking around to find her. 

"I never thought I would see him ever again," she said. 

"Did you recognize him immediately?" I asked. 

"I stared at his face and saw something deeply familiar there, but it took me a moment because I thought it was too good to be true." 

After twelve years of absolutely no contact, he had come looking for her. And nothing could make his mother stop smiling. She had spent years trying to find him, and then one day he finally found her. 

When I went to Ouagadougou, she only had one request. "Will you search for him a Bible? I want to give him one." She had already shared her faith with him within hours of their reunion, but she wanted to give him a gift that would help him find the truth of Christ for himself. 

When I returned from Ouagadougou, I gave the little red Bible to her, and then she gave it to him in the presence of our whole team. We gathered around him, laid our hands on him, and prayed for him to not just receive the Bible but also the message within and to come to a real faith in Jesus Christ. 

The next day, he got back on the bus to go back to his village and finish school there. A few days later, his mother was bursting with news to share. 

"My son called me last night," she began. "He said he went to the church and spoke with a pastor to give his life to God. He told me he wants to follow Jesus!" 

I thought about all the seeds that had been planted: the prayers of a mother for her lost son, the desire stirred in his heart to look for his mother after twelve years, a little red Bible offered in love, hands laid on his head and shoulders in fervent prayer. And now some fruit is starting to blossom: a heart's commitment to follow Christ. 

One joyful day, a lost son got off the bus and was joyfully received into the arms of his mother after twelve years of separation. How much more joyful the day that the same lost son ran into the arms of his Heavenly Father who had been waiting for him all his life.