Have you ever been lost? Not just confused by directions, but really lost and having no idea how to find your way? In one of the stories I’m writing, a character becomes lost in the back alleyways of Shanghai. While writing about this, I empathized because back in 2002, I got lost in Shanghai.

The team of Dallas Baptist University students and I had gone shopping with our Chinese guide to a tourist area far from the campus where we were staying. There were lots of stalls along the street, and the whole group stopped to look at some wares. I looked at the scarves in a stall right next to where the group was—just a yard or two away. When I looked up, the whole group was gone. I looked up and down the street. They had flat disappeared.

I walked in the general direction we’d been going, thinking I’d see them momentarily. Nope. I even stood in the middle of the small street’s intersection, making myself conspicuous. The Chinese people ignored me and walked past. No Americans were in sight.

I thought about taking a taxi back to the campus, but then the group wouldn’t know where I was when it came time to meet at the end of shopping. They would probably wait for me and not leave the area, not realizing I had gone to the campus because I’d gotten lost and didn’t know where to meet them.

So, I had to find the group. Believe me, I was praying nonstop.

After about an hour, I walked down a main street, looking for someplace that might have an English speaker. I came across a small hotel and entered. While I was trying to explain my problem to a kind person who didn’t really speak English, I glanced out the window, and two DBU students were walking past.

It turned out they had gotten an urge to see the area outside the walled-off place the group had entered to shop right after I’d gotten separated. I was the group’s professor, but tears of relief poured down my face as they smiled at me. I believe those two guys took an exploratory walk in answer to my prayers.

The topic of getting lost makes me think of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. The sheep probably didn’t intend to get lost, but there he was—separated. The Good Shepherd didn’t wait for the sheep to come home. He went out to look for him because He knew the sheep couldn’t find his way back.

How wonderful to know that God answers prayer and rescues us. First, through the cross when we accept Jesus as our Savior. And next, by His presence with us, even when lost in the biggest city in the world.

Shanghai image credit: Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash.