Written by Carol Freeman

At twenty, my oldest daughter Jenny took one of her four-year-old twin sisters, Michelle, out for a spin on a jet ski at her Aunt and Uncle’s lake house near Duluth at around 4pm. When they didn’t come back, search parties were sent out, including the local sheriff.  

 The water level was so low in that man-made Island Lake that I started fighting images of my daughters having hit driftwood or an underwater tree. Maybe they were horribly injured – or worse. I wondered if we would find them before dark. As the minutes ticked by, I was getting sicker and sicker, agonizing over the thought of losing two precious daughters. Was this all going to end in some senseless, random drowning?

 A verse came to me as I prayed, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not panic!”

 I paced. I prayed. Over and over I cried out to God. I burned the rice. 

 Finally, at 7pm, as despair threatened to throttle me, Jenny called. “Oh, Jenny! Where have you been? Is Michelle okay?” 

Jenny calmly replied, “Mom, surely you knew I would take good care of your child!”

“‘Yes, of course, you would!”

 She then explained how they had gotten so very lost. She hadn’t known that the lake house was located on just a small bay of a big lake, and didn’t realize that she had left our bay and gone out to the large part of the lake. She kept jet skiing on and on for seven miles around the rough large lake, thinking if only she followed the shore, she’d eventually get back to us. Problem was, there are 87 miles of shoreline on this lake! Finally, bone weary, after jet skiing for close to three hours, with a very sad and cold little Michelle, she came across some women who let her use their cell phone to call home.

 Later, on my bed that night, I pondered the events of the day. I thought, What, Lord, are you wanting to say in all this? Don’t get me wrong. I’m so grateful that they are both home safe, but what was your purpose in allowing us to go through those two hours of tormenting anguish? I listened in the quiet. Then I sensed the Lord saying to me, 

 “Think how you agonized, longed and searched for your two beloved children for just two hours. You wept, ‘Where are my children?’ Think how I agonize, long and search for my beloved, lost children in this world – all the day long, day in and day out, year in and year out. How I long to wrap my arms around each one of them and restore them back into loving relationship with me. Understand my heart. Bear my burden with me. Join me in my search for my lost children.’”