Lost But Found
The Friday after Thanksgiving I used my credit card in Virginia Beach to purchase a birthday present for a friend. It wasn't until the following Monday I needed it again and it was not in my wallet. The hunt began. I must have gone through my wallet at least five times and search every article of clothing I had taken on the trip. My patient husband scoured the car and called every place we had stopped to use the bathroom, eat or shop on the way home. Our son and daughter in law were on the lookout at their home as well. I was certain I had shopped with it in my pocket, not wanting to be burdened down with a wallet on top of my heart monitoring equipment I had to tote around. We began monitoring our account several times a day to be sure the card wasn't being used. We wanted to be patient and see if it would surface, as it is the card all our automatic payments are on and changing the card would birth a tedious time consuming task.
Yes, we prayed several times during the ten days, but Sunday I finally confessed my sorrow to my husband and said, I needed to go ahead and start the replacement process. Before doing so, I asked the Lord if there was any place left to look. I opened one side of my closet where I keep jacket. None of those jackets had made the Thanksgiving trip with me, but out of the blue I stuck my hand in the pocket of one and there it was!!!! Neither of us have any recollection of me wearing that coat, but ya know what...it doesn't matter. We don't need to know how it got there, we just praised the Lord we had the card!
Does God feel like that when one of his lost sheep finally return home to him? It doesn't matter what traps they've been caught in, how matted and messy their wool might look or what stinky stuff they wandered through while they were lost. What matters is that they found their way back to the master.
Let's team up together today and pray for those who are spiritually lost.
"I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands."
Psalm 119:176
"And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,
'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:5-7
If God has a Christmas wish list I'm certain what he wants most of all is for his children who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, to come to that saving knowledge so he can write their names in the Book of Life.
