Let me tell you about a time when I was thought to be lost. In January 1962, when I was 14 years old, during a very severe Kansas blizzard I was thought to be so lost they were about to call out the National Guard to help find me.
Because of the forecast of a bad winter storm, school had been canceled. The snow had been falling for a while but just enough to make the rabbits hunker down. So, I and my friend and next door neighbor, Chucky Foulk, decided it would be a good day to go rabbit hunting. We loaded up our sled and started walking south out of town down a road where no one lived. After a few hours we had one or two rabbits and we decided that we should head back.
Well, by this time the storm had really picked up and the wind out of the north had become very strong. The snow had completely covered the road and there were drifts that were above our knees. We were about 3 miles out of town. We stopped to assess our situation, we knew that we could not get back home before dark and the snow was so heavy we could easily get lost. We looked around and we saw that there was an old abandoned farm house a little ways off the road. So we thought we could stay inside there until the storm let up.
Well, the storm didn’t let up and in fact it got worse. It looked like we were going to have to spend the night there. There was an old wood burning stove so we found some wood and built a fire. We cleaned one of the rabbits and cooked it on the fire. Knowing that sometimes wild rabbits carried a bad disease, we cooked it until it was charred. My feet were very cold so I thought I would warm up my shoes, do you know that rubber sole shoes melt if too close to a fire, well I didn’t.
We were fairly safe considering we were out in a record breaking blizzard. We were warm and dry even though I was wearing melted shoes.
That was not the case at our homes. While we knew where we were and that we were safe, our parents didn’t.
I had never thought much about what my parents must have gone through until 2019 when I attended the funeral of my good friend Chucky. Everyone there was asking me about that hunting trip. Re-living it there with Chucky’s family and friends I got to thinking about my parents and what they were feeling back then. They had already passed so I couldn’t ask.
There were no cell phones back in 1962 and there was no land line to this old farm house, so they had no idea that we were safe. They only thought that we were lost and maybe lost for good. My parents were religious so I know they were praying for our safe return. Fortunately a very cold farmer was out on his tractor, this was before tractors had heated cabs, smelled our smoke and found us. He went back to get someone with a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I assume it was a sheriff’s deputy, but I really don’t remember. They loaded us up and took us home.
Preparing for this sermon, I found a newspaper article in a bunch of articles I found cleaning my parent’s home that gave me an idea of what they were thinking.
My mother had written a letter to the editor of the El Dorado Times. Here is part of what she wrote:
“They (meaning the sheriff and newspaper men) couldn’t possibly know of all the farmers, refinery workers, business men, school teachers, clerks – both men and women – who so willingly risked life, limb and property to aid their fellow men. They shared one communal thought: To find the boys and return them safely home.
Personally, I feel very humble and deeply grateful that God has seen fit to allow my family to live in a community where everyone, in all walks of life, responds so willingly and unselfishly in a time of crisis.”
It is signed Mrs. Al Resnik, it’s ironical that Pastor Barb was telling us last week how a woman in the 60’s signed their name.
Whether you are lost because of a loss of a loved one like Naomi, lost in your anxiety, or a snow storm we need to turn to God for guidance.
This was part of a sermon that I gave while filling in for our pastor, Rev. Barb Clinger, on October 16, 2022. The service was recorded on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKaYOTl5iyo
