By Lois E. Wilson
When a child is small, the first time when left alone with a baby-sitter, the child may cry. Children don’t understand what is happening. When either parent is gone for a time, they grow concerned and worry if their parent will return. It is uncertainty caused by lack of experience with such situations. Children can feel abandoned.
If children are unfamiliar with their surroundings and don’t know their boundaries, they may wander off, become lost, and not know the way back home. Some children have been lost near their own neighborhoods for a day or more.
Children may become separated from a parent while shopping in a large store. The aisles are confusing to them and if they can’t see their parent, they feel lost. Often a customer or store employee sees their stress and helps them reunite with their parent.
There are probably few of us who have been driving in a strange city and not become lost when we made a wrong turn.
Rarely a child is abandoned by a mother who is overwhelmed by her situation. She may leave the baby at a site where she believes there are those who will take it in and see to its care.
At times people have been abandoned by a spouse or due to a political situation. Reconciliation or divorce may solve the former; negotiations may occur to see that those who are victims in a nation’s upheaval are eventually given asylum or freedom.
Have you been waiting at the airport for a flight’s departure and had the flight cancelled for some reason such as bad weather? You have been stranded.
You can also be stranded if you are on a cruise and miss the ship’s time of leaving that port for the next destination.
“Robinson Crusoe” the fictional sole survivor of a shipwreck spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island stranded from his prior life. He encounters natives, captives, and mutineers, before ultimately being rescued.
Once I was at a residential rehab facility recovering from a fall. I was unable to walk. I felt stranded a couple of times when a staff member left me in a recliner chair fifteen feet away from the call button.
Anyone can experience the feelings of concern and fear that occur when lost, abandoned, or stranded. You can seek and pray for help. Most times, fortunately, our fears are not as serious as we imagine. And with God at our side, we should remember we are never alone. He is our GPS—Guiding Personal Savior during our lives.