Amy, Lost and Found

The very air had been electric 
on that hot and humid June day.
The children in the classroom all unsettled.
The teacher fearful, glancing at the window.

The tornado warning came over the intercom.
Children took shelter under their desks.
Teacher said their parents were coming to get them.
Thunder, lightning and children's whimpering merged.

The arrival of parents caused
a frantic rushing to the exits.
All the children were claimed.
All except little Amy.

The thunder bashed and shook the world.
The sky turned green and black.
Lightning flashed again and again.
The wind sounded like a freight train.
Amy and her teacher shivered near the door,
waiting for her parents.
They didn't come.

Amy said she was leaving. 
She'd go it alone.
Teacher said not to go - that she'd get hurt.
But teacher had to get her own child,
she let Amy head out into the storm.
Alone.

With the scent of sulfur in the air.
Donder and blitzen raging around her,
Amy struggled toward home in the storm,
wet and bedraggled,
hair and clothes clinging.

Setting out across a field,
the drenched soil turned swampy.
Struggling against the storm,
Amy now fumbled through mud.
One shoe was sucked off her foot.
She stumbled on,
until she couldn't.

Exhausted, she lost hope in being saved.
She knew now that she had only herself.
That no one would help her.
That she was unloved.

The wind blew her little body sideways.
The heavy rain and hail obscured her vision.
In the valley of the shadow of death,
her heart was broken and 
she vowed to never trust again.

In the distance, through the pounding rain,
 she could hear a host of angels calling her name.
And then she heard the voice of God.
He told her to stay calm and stay put.

She shouted, "If you were the real God, you'd see I can't move!
I'm stuck in the mud."
 
God came up behind her, the mud grabbing at his shoes.
He said, "Oh, my Amy!  Daddy's here. You're safe now."
Amy was swept up in his arms and she cried out,
"Daddy! Oh, Daddy, you found me! You found me."

As they reached the other side,
the storm began to clear.
The sun came out from behind the clouds.
Amy never forgot that when hope was lost,
she'd  then been found.

©Ellen Pepper 2026