By Michaelyn Hein
I held it together until the morning after our beloved family puppy had gone missing. Up until then, I was all action: printing “lost dog” flyers, helping my husband canvass neighborhoods where she’d last been seen, and consoling our three children who were understandably yearning to find her.
But it was getting close to 24 hours with no leads, and the night our little dog had to endure was a freezing 21 degrees. Blanketed and warm in my bed, I barely slept.
“She hates to be cold,” my son worried. Indeed, her favorite place to lay in our home is by a toe warmer under the kitchen stove. She regularly burrows herself into the blankets my children cover her with when she’s snuggled in her cushy bed. She is no hearty, tough-as-nails dog. She could be, but she’s been slightly too pampered.
And so, in the early hours of her second day of being lost, I gave up trying to sleep and instead went downstairs. Might as well get a head start on morning prayer and then print more flyers, I figured. I opened the prayer app on my phone and slipped to my knees. I hadn’t planned on doing that, but grief overcame me, and my body sank with my emotions.
To be honest, I was wavering on any hope that she’d be found. She is a skittish dog, easily frightened by strangers and always ready to defend herself or run. Who could win her over and lure her to safety? With these thoughts swimming through my mind, I poured out to God all that I had been holding within.
“Lord,” I prayed, “my ache is not for myself but for my children. You know what a treasure Leia is to them, how they adore her. I hurt for them, for their pain at having lost one they love so much. Please restore her to our family.”
In that moment, I understood something profound and true and tragic – my ache for my children’s loss was only a glimpse of the immense suffering Our Lord feels for so many of His own children who have lost something infinitely more valuable: Him.
While my family’s search would be short-lived, Jesus’ search for His lost children goes on. As our Good Shepherd, He continually seeks the soul who is frightened and, though desperate to be found, equally ready to flee from Him.
With Our Lord, we ache, too. We yearn to see our fallen away loved ones restored to the Kingdom. We long to see our family, our friends, in right relationship with our Savior. And at this time of year, as we inch closer to that holy day on which our Blessed Mother gifted her Divine Son to the world, we ache at seeing that precious gift rejected by those we know sorely need Him.
In seeing the desperate situation of our dear ones, we may feel hopeless. When we hear our Lord ask in Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”, we may even wonder who else there is to answer the call. We’ve tried, we think. It’s useless.
And yet, our God never gives up. As His children, then, we must persevere in the search and rescue mission He has entrusted to us. Though it may feel hopeless, He has gifted us a mentor to keep our hope alive: His Blessed Mother.
At Fatima, Our Lady clearly taught how to aide her in bringing her Son’s lost children back into the fold of His family. “Pray! Pray a great deal,” she urged Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, “and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”
Traveling to Bethlehem
Several years later, on December 10, 1925, Our Lady appeared with her Divine Son to Lucia to request that on the first Saturday of the month for five consecutive months we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, recite the Rosary, meditate on the Rosary’s mysteries for 15 minutes, and make a confession. She further implored the children to make this devotion “known and embraced by many other persons.” Should we do so, Lucia explained, we love as the saints did and give Jesus and Mary consolation so “that in exchange for this love they might be able to save many souls.”
It seems a lot – and, indeed, it is. But Jesus leaves the 99 to find the one. Might we not also leave the 99 other things we have to do in our day to do the one thing that matters most, whether that be to take five minutes for Confession, 15 minutes for a Rosary, or 30 minutes for a Saturday morning Mass offered for the salvation of even one soul?
As we travel these weeks with Our Lady toward a stable in Bethlehem, may we be inspired to persevere in our sacrifices for the lost. And as we light the rose candle the third week of Advent, may our weary souls feel nourished in the hope that it promises. Above all, may we remember that we do not do this work alone. Our Lord is always with us, desiring even more than we do to “gather together the lambs with his arm, take them up in his bosom,” and carry them home (Isaiah 40:11).
In the end, our puppy was not missing much longer. That very same day of my desperate plea to Jesus on behalf of my children, I received notification that she was spotted just a half mile away. Within minutes, I knelt before her as she covered my face with kisses, and just a short drive later, I reunited her with our family. As I watched the reunion, I witnessed the truth that though all may seem lost, with God all things are truly possible.
Michaelyn Hein is a Catholic writer, wife and mother, who resides in Hopewell, New Jersey.
