I’ve written before about our “barn cats.” We have some outside only cats. The agreement is we feed them once a day on our back porch, and they keep the mice and snakes away from the house. It has been working out pretty well. We have the bowl positioned so we can see them come and go during the day. Most of them keep their distance from us. We have about six long term residents. Others seem to show up every once in a while. A new one came on the scene this week. Some just simply disappear.

We have only one that actually interacts with us. We call her “Momma Kitty.” When I wake up in the morning, she is sitting at the glass door at the back of our house, looking in, waiting for the daily ration of food. She waits for me to come out and pour it into the bowl, meows once or twice and then starts to eat. Some days she will rub up against my leg or even let me pet her.

She recently had another litter of kittens. We saw three of them up on the porch last week. This morning, two of them were sitting there waiting with her when I got up. When I opened the door, the little ones ran away, but Momma stayed and waited for the food.

Because I know there were three kittens, I found myself wondering where the third one was. Had something happened to it? Was it still alive? As I said, often a cat just disappears one day never to be seen again. I wish I could somehow reach out and find out what happened.

I know that happens with people in our lives, too. Sometimes we just lose touch with someone and don’t even realize it right away. “I wonder whatever happened to him?” That happens in the church, too. People seem to drift away and too often we let them slip through the cracks. Many times I tried to reach out to people like that, but they didn’t respond to my efforts. But every now and then I was able to reestablish the connection. Some of those times I discovered that the person was offended or upset with something I or another person had done, and I would not have known about it if I had not reached out. Being able to work through those situations was very rewarding.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

It is important for all of us to reach out to our friends and acquaintances who suddenly “drop off the radar.” This can often be a signal that something is wrong. They may need the love and encouragement that we have to share in Jesus’ name. And He gave us the example. Luke 15:1-7 talks about the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 who are safe to seek out the one that was lost. And later, at Zacchaeus’ house, Jesus said very plainly:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

Jesus did the saving part with His payment for the sins of the world on the cross. He offers that to anyone who listens to Him and believes His message. But sometimes those in the fold wander away. We need to be sure we do more than just wonder what happened to them. We need to seek them out and see what we can do to restore them.

There is someone in your life right now that you need to seek out. Ask God to help you identify that person and then give you the strength to reach out to him or her. Do it for Jesus. Even if you don’t see any results, nothing done for Jesus is ever in vain. Give it a shot. Let the Spirit work through you.