Lost

The landlord made a scene again.

The rent had been due

for the last six months.

Delphi had tried to hold on.

Selling what she could.

Borrowing money.

Going hungry for days at a time.

But the difficult days

never seemed to end.

She picked up her bag.

She had had enough.

She couldn't wait any longer

for the landlord to throw her out.

She threw in a few things

photographs of her parents

and some important documents

She could not leave behind.

Then she walked out of the house.

She walked without knowing where to go,

tears falling freely down her face.

I wish I had my extended family around me.

Her mother used to talk about them

all the time.

Grandparents.

Uncles.

Aunts.

Cousins.

People she had never really known,

but had always wished were there.

Someone to call her own.

Her parents were both gone now.

Her father first,

taken by a terminal illness.

Then her mother,

taken suddenly by cardiac arrest.

Delphi had spent so much of her life

caring for them,

looking after the home

and tending to their needs.

There had been little time left for anything else

or anyone else.

And now here she was

Without a job,

about to lose her home,

without her parents,

without anyone to turn to.

The evening grew darker.

As the darkness crept closer,

Delphi shuddered.

How will I sleep tonight?

Out here in the open,

in this cold?

She sat alone on the park bench,

hugging herself tightly

as the night settled around her.

Then she remembered

the verse her mother

had made her memorise and repeat

a thousand times

during her childhood:

Deuteronomy 31:8 CJB

8 But Adonai — it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don’t be afraid or downhearted.”

The words came back to her

like a whisper in the dark.

She looked up at the darkening sky and said 

"Father God, please help me.

I don't know what to do or where to go."

Suddenly,

she heard her neighbour

calling out her name.

"Delphi!"

She looked up.

Her neighbour was hurrying towards her,

accompanied by a stranger.

There was something about him

that seemed vaguely familiar.

Delphi stared at him,

trying to place the face

she somehow felt

she had seen before.

Then he spoke her name.

"Delphi..."

She froze.

That voice.

There was something in it

that stirred a painful memory

something that reminded her

so much of her father.

"Dad?" she whispered.

The stranger rushed forward

and held her close.

"I am your father's elder brother."

Delphi stared at him in shock,

her mouth falling open in disbelief.

Could this really be true?

Her uncle.

Family.

The words hardly seemed real.

"Thank God,

I finally found you!"

He looked at her

through tears of happiness.

"I've been searching for you for months,

ever since we came to know

of your mother's passing."

He held her close again.

"Everywhere I went,

I asked about you.

I never stopped looking for you."

Delphi stared at him

in utter disbelief.

What an irony, she thought.

All this time,

she had felt lost and lonely.

And here was someone

who had been searching for her

all along.

Her uncle reached out his hand.

"Come with me, my child.

You are not alone anymore.

Your family is waiting for you

back home in our country."

Delphi looked at his outstretched hand.

For the first time

in a very long time,

she smiled.

"Oh yes, she will!"

Her neighbour exclaimed excitedly.

Delphi nodded slowly, still dazed by it all.

How did all this happen so quickly?

Just hours ago, she had thought

she had nowhere to go.

Now she had a home to look forward to.

An extended family waiting to love her.

And a new future waiting to unfold

As they walked back towards her house,

Her uncle assured her that he would settle 

All the outstanding accounts and take

 Care of everything with the landlord.

They would return to their homeland

as soon as they could.

Delphi nodded in agreement,

her head still spinning

with everything that had happened.

But beneath the confusion

was something she had not felt

in a very long time.

Hope.

She looked up at the sky

and silently thanked God.

He had not deserted her.

She had never truly been alone.

And perhaps,

after all these years,

She had never really been lost.

She had only been

waiting to be found.