We can get lost in a lot of different ways in life, can’t we? I remember that one day on the Camino back in January of 2015, I was hiking when there was a lot of snow on the ground. It was difficult seeing the markers. I was entering a village when all of a sudden everything looked very familiar. I saw a lady who was tending to chores in her garden. I asked her the name of the village, and it was the same village I had passed through 20 minutes earlier. I guess I had missed a turn and had gone in a loop, returning to the same village. I felt very frustrated and lost. We can feel lost if we are frustrated in a job that does not bring us fulfillment or when we unemployed trying to find work. We can be lost in a broken friendship or in a troubling family relationship. We can become lost because of poor choices or addictions or exhaustion or lack of self-care. Many in our society today are lost in the values of the secular world, lost in their search for pleasure, not knowing where to find meaning in their lives. What did we do before we had a GPS to help us find our way? I guess we used maps or asked someone for directions. Is it wise to leave 99 sheep unattended to find the lost one? God cares so much about the lost and the poor and the forgotten that he will go out of his way to reach out to that one. May our Advent prayer today be that we do not stray from the path of our faith, that we reach out to those who are lost. May we have the courage to reach out to those who are struggling or who are frustrated. May we feel God’s loving embrace in our lives. May we bring that loving embrace to others.
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