Lost

As I wheeled my shopping trolley towards the supermarket checkout, I noticed a neatly dressed man standing nearby, looking confused.

‘I’m new here,’ he told me. ‘Can you tell me how I get out?’

A little confused myself as to why he could not see where to go, I guided him through another checkout. But as I finally left the supermarket myself, I saw this same gentleman standing outside, still confused. This time, I went up and asked if he was okay.

‘I’m lost,’ he told me. ‘I came on the bus but stopped to look at something and the others went on without me. I’m from the Christadelphian village. Do you know where our bus is?’

I did not but suggested we try the two main exits. At the first, there was no sign of his bus so we headed for the other at the far end of the centre. As we walked, he told me his name was Michael and that he was 84. I felt so sorry for him as, by this time, he looked so agitated and tired. We made it to the second exit – but again, no bus.

We then headed to the information counter but it was unmanned. So, I asked for help in a nearby chemist and someone pointed to a security guard hurrying by. I yelled out to him and discovered the bus pulled in at a tradesman’s entrance at the edge of the food court, so off we went again.

We had almost reached this entrance when my new friend’s face suddenly lit up.

‘There they are!’ he exclaimed with great relief and headed straight for a group of older people seated nearby. He hurriedly plonked down next to them and began to wipe sweat from his forehead.

‘That was a terrible experience,’ he said, gasping for breath. ‘Thank you very much for helping me!’

I turned to explain what had happened to the young carer in charge of the group but, to my shock, she did not seem too fazed at all – or even too inclined to care for Michael.

‘I think he needs a glass of water at least,’ I told her in my most disapproving tone, before wheeling my trolley away. But when I arrived home, I found I was still fuming. Surely they could have cared better for this poor gentleman? If I had not noticed him standing there so distressed, someone else would soon hopefully have helped him, but how long would that have taken?

Later, when I told my husband the story, I began thinking how graphically it depicted our own lost state when we do not know Jesus Christ. We may set off happily enough in life, following along with our friends and trying all sorts of different ways and experiences. But at some stage, like Michael, we may end up well and truly confused, alarmed and even hopeless. We may ask here and there for help but find none. Yet, Jesus is constantly reaching out to us, longing to set our feet on the right path again.

May we each respond with sincere love and gratitude as we are found by him and welcomed home!

‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ John 14:6

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Lost … and found

I think I must be the Queen of Lost Earring Land. I lose all shapes and sizes of them with great regularity—just ask my family! I even have a little jewellery bag where I keep the one sad, remaining earring left behind, in the hope that someday it might be reunited with its partner.

Believe it or not, I have managed to lose one of my earrings pictured here three times over! They are not valuable, but I like their colour and shape. So whenever I have lost one, a big treasure hunt has ensued. The first time, my granddaughter found it behind the driver’s seat in my car. I’m not sure who was the most excited, but she was definitely quite pleased with herself.

On another occasion, as I went to get into my car one day and head out, I realised I had lost one of these same earrings again. So back I went to our unit, looking carefully everywhere. Finally, I gave up and walked rather disconsolately to my car again. And at that point, when I was not even really looking for my earring, I spied it lying on the footpath right in front of me! What a joyful moment—I could not believe I had missed seeing it earlier.

Then recently, I managed to lose one of these earrings for the third time. I searched everywhere at home, to no avail. When the granddaughter who had previously found my earring visited soon after, I even offered her five dollars if she could find it, but in the end, she too gave up. The next day, I decided to search down at our church, with no real hope of finding my errant earring. But just as I was about to abandon my quest, I checked one last room I had briefly entered the previous day—and there it was. Someone must have picked it up and put it on a table there so I could see it clearly. What a relief!

Each time I have lost and found my earring, I have remembered with feeling the parable Jesus told about the woman who loses a silver coin:

Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:8-10

This coin the woman lost must have been very valuable to her, so no wonder she searches so diligently, using precious oil to light her lamp and sweeping until she finds her lost treasure. And that is exactly how God searches for us too. God sent his own Son Jesus ‘to seek and to save what was lost’ (Luke 19:10). How easily we can forget how valuable we are to God! And how lovingly God continues to seek us out, however far away we might stray, then celebrates with great joy when we are found!

It’s worth losing something, I have decided—even a favourite earring—in order to be reminded of God’s heart for us. And it’s doubly worth it when that something is found again!

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Lost and Found

One morning last week, I took myself off to the movies to see Helen Mirren in Woman in Gold. I really enjoyed the film—as did the one other person present! I came home feeling glad I had made the effort—until I realised one of my earrings was missing.

Now these earrings hold great sentimental value for me. They were a gift from one of our daughters and are cleverly handcrafted from slivers of old china. I searched our house, while my husband checked outside and in the car. I then phoned the movie theatre, but to no avail.

I decided to go back myself to look. As I retraced my steps from the theatre complex car park, my eyes were glued to the ground. Nothing. I entered the foyer, examining that multi-coloured carpet with every step. Still nothing.

‘Hi, I phoned earlier about my lost earring,’ I told the young ticket seller.

‘Oh yes—I checked but couldn’t find anything. You can look yourself, but you’ll need a torch.’

I headed along the wide corridor, searching all the while, then pushed the heavy theatre doors open and immediately found myself in pitch darkness. Using my little mobile phone flashlight, I checked around the seat I had occupied earlier, unearthing old pieces of sticky popcorn and other choice morsels in the process. But alas—no earring.

My check of the ladies’ toilets proved equally fruitless. Then, just as I was heading disconsolately back past the doors leading to the theatre, something small and whitish on the floor caught my eye. … My earring! For some reason, I had missed seeing it earlier—yet there it was, as if begging to be found.

Brandishing the earring and babbling with joy, I raced back to the young ticket seller, who obviously thought I was a little crazy. But I didn’t care. As I headed home, the world around me seemed so much brighter and more colourful and I wanted to smile at everyone and tell them about my find. I texted my husband—‘Found it!’ And back came his message—‘Great! Now go and celebrate!’

So that’s what I did. And as I sat enjoying my celebratory coffee, I remembered a time when another woman rejoiced at finding something she had lost—a precious coin worth a great deal to her. I remembered too that it was a story Jesus told to illustrate the deep joy experienced by his Father in heaven when one of us is found.

Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:8-10

If my joy at finding my earring was anything to go by, then that heavenly joy experienced when one of us is found must be absolutely awesome. And the love of God that culminates in such joy must be even more awesome and mind-blowing, don’t you think?

I once was lost… but now am found. How about you?

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Lost … and found

I have a friend who is very good at losing things. I had thought of basing my next novel on my friend’s exciting exploits but figure people would probably not believe the half of it!

It all started when my friend was seven. She was given a gold signet ring as a special Christmas gift—something she had long set her heart on. However, it was a little too big and one day not long after, while she was playing at the beach, it slipped off and was lost in the sand. She and others searched in vain, praying they would find it, but it was impossible. The next morning, my friend went back to the beach, no doubt a little disconsolately. She began building a sandcastle, letting the dry sand run through her fingers over the top of the castle, when lo and behold, the ring appeared! It had lain in the sand there for a whole day, even when the tide flowed in and out over it.

Years later, my friend lost a beautiful, little butterfly brooch she cherished, given to her by an older relative. More years passed, until one day when she visited a second-hand shop with a friend, she happened to see a brooch exactly the same as the one she lost. Needless to say, she bought it then and there, redeeming ‘her’ brooch for some relatively small amount. Was it perhaps the very one she lost? We will never know.

Then more recently, while my friend was moving into a new home that is situated at the top of a long, steep driveway, a ring she was wearing came off and rolled down … and down … and down … quickly disappearing from sight. Certain she would never see it again but desperate to find it, my friend slowly walked down her driveway late that night with a torch to look one more time. And then she saw it, lying right at the bottom between two rubbish bins on the footpath, gleaming in the light of her small torch! It could have disappeared in the grass anywhere along the way, rolled into two large drains nearby or bounced right across the road. Instead, it apparently rolled in a perfectly straight line as it went on its merry way down to the road below.

And then there were the gold earrings my friend’s daughter gave her. She had no idea where she could have lost them, so eventually her daughter gave her another pair. Then one day when my friend was tidying some linen in a cupboard, she found a folded over placemat. Wondering why it was folded the way it was, she investigated—and yes, there were the earrings, neatly lying just where she must have left them.

My friend well knows the meaning of rejoicing when something she has lost is found and relates very easily to the woman Jesus tells us about in Luke 15 who loses a coin. But I am sure she understands God’s heart well too for his lost children and shares in the wonderful rejoicing in heaven when one of them turns back to the Father.

… I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10).

This Christmas, let’s rejoice in our ‘found’ state as we remember our Saviour’s birth. And for those of you who still feel lost, may you too find peace and joy this Christmas as you welcome the Christ Child into your heart.

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