I sat in a hotel room looking over the city of Amarillo on a recent book tour. Whenever I’m headed to this town the tune of the song Amarillo by Morningplays through my head. The famed city of the Texas panhandle has been the stopping place for many a trip throughout my life. Youth groups on their way to the Glorieta Baptist Encampment in New Mexico, conferences at the same location, various ski trips, book tours, and vacations have all found Amarillo the perfect place for a night’s lodging.

Amarillo hosts a steak house, named the Big Texan that goes overboard in billboard advertising featuring a free seventy-two ounce steak dinner. It’s free provided the patron can consume the steak, a baked potato, a salad, a dinner roll, and a drink within one hour. If you don’t succeed the price is rather astronomical for losing. While it is tempting to try, I have never attempted the feat and choose instead to dine on a more reasonable piece of meat. Something inside me told me I would lose that contest.

Just west of the city are two memorable sites off Interstate 40. One is the Cadillac Ranch where a series of automobiles are buried in the ground sticking straight up. Those stopping are allowed to spray paint all sorts of graffiti on the grounded autos. The other site is memorable because the stench stays with you until you reach either the state line of New Mexico or Oklahoma depending on the direction of travel. The site is a gathering place for all sorts of cattle. The stench is, of course, the result of cattle living and eating in such a close proximity to a major highway. The aroma would always get giggles out of youth groups and cause accusations of who might of “let one go.”

It was also in Amarillo where my former wife and I stayed on our return trip from the Glorieta encampment where we led in one of Lifeway’s Marriage Enrichment weekends. We were the recreation leaders for the weekend. I told the couples before leading a group activity that it felt weird going through the prayer garden at the camp and not breaking up kissing couples as would be done during youth camps. On that night I watched my beloved Kansas City Royals blow a two run lead in the ninth inning to lose the second game of the 1985 World Series.

As I said, the city holds all sorts of memories in my heart. I didn’t realize, after that baseball game, that the town would soon be memorable for things lost. Two years later, I took the youth group from First Baptist Church of Natchez, Mississippi to the Centrifuge camp at Glorieta. So naturally, Amarillo was a stop on the way. The group was let out at the Westgate Mall and given their meal money for dinner. There was also a bit of time allotted for them to shop or tour the mall if they desired.

At the mall closing time all the youth and adult leaders boarded the two buses to go back to the motel for the evening. A count was done on both buses and, knowing all were accounted for, I instructed the bus drivers to take off.

A few minutes away from the mall one of the junior high boys came up to me and asked if a certain seventh-grade young man was on the other bus, because he was supposed to be on this one. I jumped to my feet and did a quick pass through the bus.  I recounted and found I was one short of the number of people I was supposed to have on this bus. In that this was before cell phones were in existence, I had the driver contact the other driver on his citizen band radio to see if the young man were aboard the other bus.

He was not on the other bus.

Now my heart was racing. I paced up and down the aisle of the bus counting over and over again and falling one person short each time. I questioned those on the bus where they last saw the young man. No answers given were of any help. I must have looked in the bus’s bathroom six times to make sure he wasn’t hiding in there. Each search came up empty. I was certain I had originally counted correctly, but now I was entertaining doubts. My mind raced to how panicked the young man would be. Being in the seventh-grade and not having hit his growth spurt in life made me panic even more for the youngster. I hoped he had the wherewithal to find mall security and call ahead to the hotel, if he even remembered what hotel we were staying in.

I also pondered the thought that the deserted young man would get scared and called home. I would be in a heap of trouble in this church if that were to occur. It didn’t help that his dad was a deacon and that both parents were two of the most influential people in the church. I plotted an escape route in my head to hitchhike from Amarillo to Mexico and send for my family later to avoid the inevitable consequences of leaving a young person in a public mall.

I created a plan to drop the rest of the group at the hotel and informed one of my adult leaders to call the mall and inform them of the situation. I would return with one of the bus drivers back to the mall and hope to find the youngster before anything bad could happen. My heart continued to race with panic over the fear this young man might be experiencing. I got on the bus’s microphone and explained that we needed to exit the bus as quickly as possible upon arrival at the hotel.

Just as we exited the interstate toward the hotel my name was called by another young person in the back of the bus. As I turned to see what they wanted, the overhead compartment was opened and there was the diminutive youngster. He had been hiding in the airplane style compartment the entire time. He gave me an impish grin and waved at me. I told him, “I’m so glad you’re okay. Now I’m going to kill you!”

Laughter filled the bus at the joke played on me and later the other bus when told the lost youth had been “found.” In a weird way, celebration ensued for the lost had been located. My heart resumed a normal beat. I canceled my emergency trip to Mexico in my mind. I chose to love the youngster rather than kill him. In reality, this is something I would have tried when I was his age.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells us the stories of three situations where a lost sheep, coin, and son were found. The stories are told in response to the religious leaders, known for not breaking the law, were accusing Jesus of hanging out and eating with sinners. Jesus explains that if they had one hundred sheep and discovered one was missing would they not leave the ninety-nine sheep behind to find the one lost sheep. When the sheep is found it would be hoisted up on the shepherd’s shoulders and carried home like something special. Jesus said any of us would tell our friends and rejoice over finding that which was lost.

The woman that has lost a coin, Jesus explains, lights a lamp and looks all over the house looking in every place where the coin might have been lost. She might have looked in the bathroom numerous times herself! Jesus further explains that when she finds the coin she will tell her friends and rejoice over finding her lost treasure. Jesus tells us the angels in heaven do the same thing for any sinner that finds grace and love in God.

The father of a wayward son kept a constant watch out for his son’s return. When he saw his son coming he ignored the son’s pleas to be a servant and set him up as royalty. He killed the fatted calf and invited everyone to a celebration over his son’s return. His son that had been lost was now found.

Each person that lost something valuable paced the bus, so to speak, looking for the lost item. Jesus pointed out that God seeks and waits for those of us that are lost with the same fervor and passion those people searched and waited for their lost items. The angels are waiting to throw a party for the next person that finds peace and trust in God’s grace and forgiveness.

The seeking isn’t just for those determined by our standards to be “wayward.”  In fact, the lost son that was found set off a party that ticked off a compliant brother that was lost in a different way. He was ticked because he had always followed the rules and couldn’t see any wrong in his own heart. The beauty of the story of grace is that the Father waits patiently for “rule-followers” to find the truth in love and grace as well.

So, who are you hanging out and dining with?  Any lost coins, sheep, or sons in your company? Let’s plan a party soon!