Code Adam

I was at Wal-Mart Saturday completely by myself and somewhere between a whole bag of pears breaking on me in the produce department, resulting in all my pears rolling all over the floor and my case of root beer breaking on me as I lifted it onto the checkout counter, resulting in twelve cans of root beer rolling under the candy counter, I had quite an emotional experience.

I was headed towards the shoe department when that bone chilling announcement came over the load speakers: "Attention all employees! Code Adam! Four year old boy. Spider man shoes. Brown hair. Red shirt." The message repeats, and I'm already glancing every which direction. Flashbacks to losing Riley at Silver Dollar City and in the neighborhood after dark and a few other places are darting through my head. I'm remembering how scary it was, and knowing that there is a parent at the front of the store who is probably scared out of their wits.

But that isn't what got me choked up. As I was glancing around, I noticed something I've never seen before. Wal-mart employees. Well, o.k., I've seen them, but you never see one when you need one. Suddenly, they were everywhere! Every employee in that store immediately stopped what they were doing and began to hunt. They were looking down aisles, under racks, in shelves...anywhere a four year old boy might be. You never saw so much blue and khaki in one place! I was starting to think there were more employees than customers. Every single one of them was intent and taking the "code" seriously. Nothing else mattered, but to find the little boy with the spider man shoes. It literally choked me up.

...and then I began to think....isn't that what we should all be doing? Jesus has called out to us as believers: "Code Adam! Every man and woman in this world that still needs me. They live next door to you. They work with you. They are all ages, shapes, sizes, and occupations. Their common denominator? They are still lost!" Can you even imagine what it would be like if we all dropped what we were doing, unified our army, and intently, relentlessly sought after the ones that were lost?

My Wal-mart story had a happy ending. After about three minutes, the voice came again: "Attention, Wal-mart employees! Code Adam canceled." Everyone sighed a deep sigh of relief and went back to work.

But our code won't be canceled until Jesus comes back. We can't relax. We can't stop looking, pursuing, and helping to unite the lost children with their Father.

I left deeply moved.....and let me tell you, after retrieving the case of Sprite that tumbled out of my cart in the parking lot, you can bet I guarded the 25 lb bag of rice with my life!