The Search That Wouldn't Wait Until Morning

In 2019, a three-year-old boy named Christopher Ramirez wandered away from his family's home in Grimes County, Texas, following a neighbor's dog into dense woods. Within hours, over 200 volunteers joined the search — firefighters, mounted patrol units, FBI agents, neighbors who had never met the family. They combed through tangled brush and creek beds in ninety-degree heat. Helicopters swept overhead with thermal cameras. Nobody said, "Well, he's just one child — we've got things to do." Nobody calculated the cost and decided it wasn't worth it.

For four days, the search continued. Volunteers drove in from neighboring counties. Strangers brought food and water to the staging area. And on the fourth day, searchers found Christopher alive, muddy and dehydrated but breathing, curled up near a clearing less than five miles from home.

The celebration was immediate and unrestrained. His mother collapsed in tears. Hardened deputies grinned. The whole community exhaled together.

Jesus told the Pharisees that a shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep on the open hillside to find the one that wandered off. It sounds reckless until you understand the heart behind it. The Almighty doesn't run a cost-benefit analysis on your soul. He doesn't wait for you to find your own way back. He searches — through the brush, through the darkness, through whatever it takes — because to Him, the one who is lost is never expendable. And when He finds you, all of heaven throws a party that puts Grimes County to shame.