Christian Living

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Today our pastor was talking about the three parables in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. His illustration woke a memory in me.

“While Sandy and I were in England she took her wedding ring off to do something and couldn’t find it ” Pastor Ron said. Before coming to pastor our church they had pastored, for several years in England. He continued, “We searched the house from top to bottom and finally came to the conclusion, it was lost. She was really upset, because the ring meant something to her. Finally about six months later I found the ring she had put it on the top of my chest of drawers and the top drawer wasn’t shut all the way and it fell in. It wasn’t until I was cleaning the drawer where I kept all kinds of junk I found it on the very bottom.”

He talked for a while about the lost sheep and lost coin for a while then said, “A couple of months ago she did it again.” Sandy’s face was very red as the story continued. “I finally had a dream and saw it stuck in a door jam, I looked and there it was. Both times I gave it to her Sandy’s face lit up.”

I couldn’t help thinking of my lost shoes. I had all my favorite shoes in shoe-boxes I kept under the side of the bed. I packed all the boxes full of my best shoes; dress shoes to gym shoes, all my favorites were in that carton. With everything in boxes all over the house mingled with all Mario’s furniture I figured if I unpacked enough I would find everything, I found a lot but I couldn’t find the shoes. I finally decided the movers had left that box at the woman’s shelter by mistake. They had agreed to drop an easy chair, a dresser and several bags of clothes that no longer fit at the shelter than bring the rest here. I had come to terms with the my shoes going there after all you should only give the best. But I did miss my good shoes.

About six months after I had come to terms with the shoes being gone forever; I found them. I had packed something on top of the shoe boxes. When I had opened the box and seen the other things I moved on to another box because I was sure the shoes weren’t there. They were there all the time I just didn’t know it. Just like Sandy’s ring was always in their home.

It is easy to miss things because of the other things in the way. It is even easy to miss God when too much gets in the way. All my Christian life I had done my best time for Bible study was first thing in the morning even before breakfast, or getting out of bed. After getting married, I lost that time for over a year. I would get up while Mario was doing his Bible study and fix breakfast on the theory I could get my study done after he left for work. I was suffering sleep depravation and I didn’t have anything left by the time he left for work. I would fall back to sleep and get awakened and to fix his father’s breakfast. When that was finally over it was a lost cause.

Finally we came to terms so I could get my study time. We get up around 3AM I do my study as Mario is, then I go to fix breakfast and he goes back to bed and grabs a quick nap. All that is lost can be found again.

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