You know, there are times, I think, when we all feel like we’re completely alone in a great big world, and that no one cares. A friend of mine recently shared an experience of a time when she felt like the whole world was against her. And – and as she told me that story – of a time when she was just a little girl of about 4 years of age, she shared some profound wisdom that I‘d like pass along. This is how the story goes:

Somehow Sarah got in trouble with her parents, probably for fighting with her younger sister. Obviously now, she felt it had to have been Ashley’s fault and not hers, but either way she was disciplined and sent to her room. Oh, she was upset! – very upset at the injustice of it all! – and she decided – well, she was going to run away.

So from under her bed she produced her little Care Bear suitcase, and she started packing to leave. The first thing she grabbed was her Barbie Dolls. She stuffed them in. Then came her prettiest dresses. Once it was all in the suitcase, it was all Sarah could do to jip it up. But finally, all packed, she marched out and confronted her parents.

“I’m going to live with Jesus!” she announced. “At least He loves me!”

You can just see it, can’t you? At this her parents smiled, and nodded, and said something like, “Okay, bye Sarah. We’ll miss you.”

That was not quite the reaction Sarah wanted, and it infuriated her all the more. She stood there for a moment just hoping they’d give in. When they didn’t, she turned and stormed out of the house in a snit.

Once outside, she started walking down the road. But then she realized – oh, she really didn’t want to run away. I mean after all, where’s a 4-year old going to go? So she went back to the house, and sat down on the front steps. The problem now was: How was she going to get back in the house without her parents seeing her? She tried waiting until they went somewhere else, but they didn’t move. Finally, with no other choice, she tried to sneak back in. But her parents saw her, and, you know, they welcomed her back. Sarah tried this more than once until she realized this technique was just not working.

Now as she got older, Sarah thought of this as just a silly childhood memory. But then one day it struck her – that even from the earliest age she knew that Heavenly Father and Jesus loved her, and that no matter how bad life became, she could always, in her words, ‘run away to Jesus.’

Now how did she come to gain such important knowledge at such a tender age? I like the way Sarah said it. “How blessed I am,” she said, “to be born with such incredible parents and teachers. I know that my Redeemer lives; I know that He loves me, and will never leave me comfortless.”

There are those, maybe even listening to me, who have temporarily forgotten what they once knew. They have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, how to ‘run away to Jesus.’

Sarah is a grown woman now, and she says there are still times when she needs to run away. How does she do it? She opens the door to the scriptures, and prayer – and by so doing, runs away into the welcoming arms of a loving and kind Heavenly Father.

Oh, my friends, it’s true. You can do the same. Go on, run away.