Lost and Found

I am going to make a terrible old lady someday.

Why?

Because I lose everything!!! Just ask my classmates. At one time or another, I've lost my volleyball, my tie-dye knee sock, my thumb drive, my metronome, my journal, my retainer case, my Japanese coin, my fingernail clippers, my necklace, my eye liner, my pepper spray, my pen, my keys, my CDs, my toy cockroach, you name it!

Sometimes I like to think it's not so much because I lose things but because I'm so aware of my surroundings and belongings that I'm more aware when I lose things. While others are blissfully ignorant that their pencil has gone missing until it shows up, I'm tearing my hair out seconds after it has disappeared.

But I'm pretty sure that theory is wrong.

Somebody in my yearbook sure knew me well when they said that I was most commonly found "seeking and finding."

Aha, but there's the clincher. Although I often lose things, I also often find them again.

Do you have any idea how EXCITING it is to lose something when you've believed it lost? I still remember the time in my first year of Bible school when I had misplaced my volleyball. I had searched everywhere for this prized possession, and so had my mom (that's saying something!). I had advertised to my school and everything. No sign.

Weeks went by.

Then one day I was digging in my tiny--er, closet. Behind all of my clothes crammed inside, there was a nail in the wall. And on that nail hung a bag. And in that bag was my volleyball.

"PRAISE THE LORD!!!!" I cried. I was tingling with excitement. My neighbor from the room next door came bounding into the room, immediately guessing the source of my joy.

"Did you find it? Did you find it?" Jayne asked, her eyes sparkling. She was just itching to share my joy.

I burst my elation upon her, and I continued to beam forth the rich news upon everybody I met for quite some time. I was ecstatic, and everyone just had to share my ecstasy! And many did, although I was too happy to notice if they didn't.

Then there was that time this summer that I discovered my tie-dye knee sock under the bed of a camp house in Maine that I had visited two years before then. Imagine my delight to discover my sock that had been sitting under another person's bed for two years! Luckily, I had been stubborn enough to save the other sock all this time.

Another time I lost my Australian opal necklace pendant during a free weekend in New York. I had purchased it myself on my trip to Australia so I was quite sorry to lose it. The girls had searched their home to no avail. I gave it up for lost. But one day, a year and a half later, I saw my opal around the neck of one of my friends. It was pretty unique, and I recognized it instantly.

"Um, I think that's my necklace," I told Becca uncomfortably. It had shown up in Elizabeth's things and she had passed it on to her younger sister. However, she was more than willing to part with it, and as I was reunited with my long-lost trinket, I was awed by the love of God.

Seven years or so ago, I lost a Japanese coin from my foreign coin collection. It was only missing for a few days, but still I was distraught. Then one night I was depressed after a night of sports and I got on my knees to seek God. When I opened my eyes, I looked down and saw the coin inside the shoe that I had just been wearing. God loves me indeed. And I was very happy.

And finally, on my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, while in search for my thumb drive my brother found something that I had been missing for four years. It was my toy cockroach. I have never been so elated to see something so disgusting.

These are only a few of my lost and found stories, but they have taught me so much. Because while others are either blissfully ignorant or too organized to lose anything, I get a tiny glimpse of how God must feel when He finds something that is lost.

"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:8-10)

That surge of contagious joy that pierces through the gloomiest of days. I feel that every time I find something I've lost.

Just imagine how God must feel.

When you find something you've lost, remember that you're getting a small glimpse into the heart of God. And every glimpse is precious. I treasure it every time. It makes losing things seem not quite so terrible.

Even if it does mean I'll make a terrible old lady some day.