Missing

Last night was Butterfly’s youth group Graduation Ceremony for our church. The proud Senior Class sat in the front couple of rows, beautifully dressed in formal attire. It was, as transitions usually are, bittersweet. As I watched the slide show of the tight-knit Seniors, many of whom frequent my doorstep and fridge, I got a lump in my throat thinking about them all moving on in life.

Rock Star sat with the Freshman boys, and Super Hubs was back in the Video Booth working the audio. I sat on a chair toward the back, with Little Squirt by my side. He generally doesn’t sit well, unless it’s in front of a HD screen showing Sponge Bob. Other than that, he prefers motion. So he spent his time digging in my purse for gum, picking a scab off his finger and subsequently needing a bandaid (“Spiderman, please”). Then he took pictures with an imaginary camera, complete with his own audio. “Cha-chick.”

When the ceremony was over, I moved up two rows to give a quick hug to Butterfly, before she ran off with her Small Group for some celebration BBQ. Then I turned back toward my seat, and Little Squirt was gone. Thinking he’d gone up to Video Booth to visit his father, I went to find Super Hubs. But he hadn’t seen him either. Our eyes scanned the auditoroim, half-full of high school students and parents.

I wasn’t too worried at this point. We were in our church, surrounded by safe people. But still....While Super Hubs stayed in the auditorium, I headed out to the Atrium to see if he was playing one of the video games. No Little Squirt. Then I looked in a few bathrooms. No Little Squirt. Our church is in a renovated warehouse with lots of long halls. Little Squirt knew his way around this building, inside and out. But running off like this was not something he would do! Where was he??

I went to find Super Hubs again, who shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know where he went!” Now I was beginning to get worried. Episodes of “Nancy Grace” filled my head. I’d read “The Deep End of The Ocean.” I was never so aware of the fact that scary people sometimes entered safe places and abducted little children than I was at that moment! How could my child just have disappeared??

Getting that tight, panicky feeling, I grabbed a friend who was standing in the Auditorium, and said, “Have you seen my son??” She had. “Yes. He ran behind the stage with Colton. There he is playing ball!” She pointed to the front corner of the auditorium. Relief flooded my soul.

It was probably only about 10 minutes that Little Squirt had been missing. But 10 minutes of losing a child is an eternity. I scooped my baby up, and held him against my chest. Then Super Hubs and I took him out for his favorite pizza.

Wow. How I love this child! It’s never been clearer than it was last night. And today, I’m giving him a lot of grace with his mischievous antics.....