Finding the Lost

Have you ever lost something really valuable, much needed or expensive to replace?  When you can’t find something and you get that sinking feeling in your stomach and your heart beats into panic mode?  Recently, I lost my car keys and experienced that very real, dreaded feeling. What made it worse is that there was a public holiday the day before, where I hadn’t gone out, so my limited memory gabbled to remember my steps from the last time I had seen them.  I was so sure I had put them in my jacket pocket, but after turning all my jackets upside down, emptying my handbag, shopping bags and checking every drawer, nook or cranny, I was at a complete loss. I even panicked that I might have left them inside the car or the boot, but the spare key convinced me otherwise.  Yes, I had a spare key, but it does not have the remote for the immobiliser which is a much-needed device living in South Africa!

After a whole day of searching frantically and turning up empty handed, I was reminded about a time when my husband had lost his wedding ring a week before our 10^th anniversary.  I had anxiously viewed this is a foreboding sign for our marriage and left no stone unturned in helping him to find it. It wasn’t until someone from Church reminded me that the Holy Spirit can help us find things when we ask Him, that I decided to pray. I believe God prompted me to look in our daughter’s toy box, for this was a place I never would have thought to look.  Lo and behold, it was there!  It must have come off when he was packing away her toys, the neat freak that he is…

So, with this remembered, reliable tool, I turned the situation over to God, asking Him to reveal where my car keys were. Later that afternoon, I had the notion to look in the drawer where we keep our dog’s leash and voila – there it was!!  That rush of relief sweeping through your body is the best feeling in the world! With a grateful heart and heartfelt thanks to God, I now know I will never forget to pray first, the next time I lose something.

Finding the lost made me think also of our mission as Christians in finding those who need God’s salvation.  Imagine if we all searched for people like we do for lost material things, how many souls we would find for Christ?  The truth is that there is a harvest field out there that is ready to be picked, if we will just take the time to go out there and really search to find them.