Lost and Found

Oh the places we could go with a post called Lost and Found. I sat down to start this blog thinking it would be about one thing but other thoughts keep interrupting so here goes.

The title came from a literal Lost and Found. I walked past the shelves of my church that hold the lost items gathered on any given Sunday. It is a rag tag collection. Jackets, bibles, sippy cups, binkies, coffee cups... name any easily misplaced item and you will probably find it on those shelves. Stand a few feet from the shelves and it is a hot mess of "stuff". Walk closer and you will see something completely different:

A dog-eared bible fat with notes and cards.
A binkie that looks as if it has been sucked to within an inch of its life.
Stuffed animals that have survived many a trip to the play ground.
A coffee cup with pictures of smiling faces picked so they could be seen every morning.

Items that look like junk at least to those of us who didn't lose it. Stuff that should be thrown away. Well, isn't it obvious that if these items meant something they would never have been lost in the first place?

Raise your hand if you thought "What an obnoxious thing to say!" I did and I typed the sentence. After reading it, the question just hung there for minute, simply because those items were treasures to someone else.

I had been married for about two years and right after Christmas took my engagement and wedding rings off to wash dishes. Somehow in the chaos of Christmas, they disappeared. I was devastated. My husband picked out my ring on his own and it was gorgeous. He had saved and saved and saved (needless to say he is one of the most financially responsible people I have ever met) to buy the ring he wanted me to have. Did I mention it was gorgeous? And I LOST it. He planned for months to ask me to marry him, went to several jewelry stores and bought a ring that he said "Made me think of you" and I LOST it. I searched everywhere. I took apart plumbing, looked under cushions, in clothes, boxes, everywhere.

One evening when he came home, it was freezing and dark. I was on the front porch sobbing surrounded by the contents of 4 trash bags. I was so upset that I could not say a word. I had LOST it, the ring he put so much thought into, the one he tried to put on the wrong ring finger the day we got married and joked it didn't fit, the ring that I carelessly laid down. I finally was able to squeak out "It's gone!" My wonderful sweet husband picked me up, brushed off the trash and put his arms around me and said "It's okay, wifey! I know you and we have insurance. I love you!" Now you may not think that was a sweet and beautiful thing to say but it was. It was not only beautiful, it was perfect. You see at that time, I did not do well with little things. If I could lose it in the black hole of nothingness, I did. Hubby knew that and still loved me. He loved me so much that he prepared for the inevitable me being me. He loved me and accepted me for who I was. There was no anger, no "How could you?", it was a simple "It is okay."

I never thought about losing my ring in the way that God just showed it to me. That 13 years later, I would look back on that experience and see God so clearly in the exact words my husband said to me. "It's okay, I know you and we have insurance. I love you"

At times in our lives, we have all looked like items on that Lost and Found shelf. Tired, worn-out, sad and completely lost. Matthew 18:11 says it best "For the Son of man came to save that which was lost." That would be God saying "It's okay, I know you and we have insurance. And I love you so much that your insurance is my Son."

No one is ever lost, maybe a little off course or hanging out on a shelf. Been there myself! And if you are feeling a little on the shelf, I say "It's okay, we have insurance."

love-j