Since 1996, the retail chain Wal-Mart and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) have partnered to reunite missing children with their families.

One way they do so is by collaborating on Missing Children’s Network bulletin boards in over 3,000 Wal-Mart stores, Sam’s Clubs, and distribution centers.

In 2005, when they expended efforts for collaboration, the chain already knew it was making a difference.

“We know that 134 children were recovered after callers to 1-800-THE LOST specifically stated they recognized a child’s photo on a Wal-Mart or SAM’S CLUB board,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC.

While many of us walk by those posters with no more than a glance – either because we don’t think, or would prefer to deny, that they’ll ever be relevant to us – some people take a close look. And that’s been critical to getting kids home to their families.

A few years ago, a photo of a child praying beneath one of those posters went viral. Neither he nor his mother has ever been clearly identified and no one knows for sure where or when the photo was taken or if it was staged, but it’s spread around online along with the caption:

“I had to run into Walmart. I turned around to make sure my son was next to me. Instead of finding him by my side I found him kneeling in front of the missing children board praying.”

Presumably, this mother felt compelled to anonymously share the photo after experiencing the frantic moments of looking down to find her child was not where she left him.

She was looking for him when she found him near the door, seemingly compelled to say a prayer for the lost children on the poster.

The photo seems to have originated with a Christian music station based in East Texas, 85.9 KVNE. They’ve been broadcasting family-friendly contemporary Christian tunes since the 1980s.

After they posted the photo on July 18, 2017, it quickly went viral and has now been shared well over 100K times (and that’s just the original post – it’s been shared thousands more times from other pages as well).

Even if the photo was staged, the attention it brought to the missing child board was a good thing.

While commenters made a good point that prayer does not help bring home missing children (only action does), it seems some were compelled to act after they saw the boy’s picture.

Many people reached out to thank the station for posting the photo, including one group dedicated to finding missing teen Aubrey Carroll. who disappeared from his Georgia home in 2016.

(In fact, Carroll had run away and was found safe two years later, though we don’t know if it had anything to do with the publicity – he was no longer a minor though he did eventually chose to return to his mother).

Prayers or not, drawing any attention to missing children is important. And the big heart on the little boy was enough to make people realize they needed to be paying attention to something they had previously ignored.

“Next time I’m at Walmart I’ll whisper a prayer for the missing. This child has started something great,” said one commenter.

(We’re going to give her the benefit of the doubt that she’ll look at the board while she whispers that prayer.)

One can certainly argue that, in this case, it was the power of prayer that made this photo spread and gave some guidance to those who wanted to help but didn’t realize one simple thing they could do.

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Source: Walmart, 89.5 KVNE via Facebook, NBC News, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children via Facebook