Articles
Lost And Found
Maybe this never happens to you, but sometimes I can’t find where I have placed something or filed a document. It is frustrating! Maybe it is ineptitude. Sometimes I am just sure I filed that document in the right folder. I know I placed the lost item right where I placed it. But neither one is where I thought I put them. I go back repeatedly looking at the same file and in the same places. I go back and retrace my steps to find the item that is lost. Still not where I thought they were. Then, I do it all over again. Nope. Nothing!
Now maybe it is just because I have too many things on my mind at the same time. Maybe it is a failure to lock in my mind where I placed the lost item. I have written a few things ahead of time. I know I did. I know I filed them. But where?
One time I lost my glasses. I looked in the same place a dozen times. One day I was helping with the laundry and was putting things in the washing machine. As I was placing the items of clothes in the washer, yep, there were my glasses. Don’t ask me. I have no idea how they got there. Usually, in time I locate everything. I will stumble onto what I was looking for. And neither the document nor the item lost is where I thought I had placed it. I think a ghost lives with me. I think he moves things around when I am not looking.
Further, when I am traveling, I can get so turned around I have no idea whether I am headed north or south or what the direction is. Now, on a good day I still do not know which direction I am traveling. At home I have things figured out. But on the road, I do not know. I used to run the directions off from Google but now I have my reliable Siri to tell when to turn and which direction to proceed. However, sometimes she gets confused. She has taken me down a few rabbit trails before.
Being lost or losing something is bewildering. I have learned to accept that is how this operates. Losing a document or an item of material value is one thing, but there is a condition of being lost that is not good. In fact, it is deadly. That is, being lost and separated from God. We can’t afford to be separated from the Giver of eternal life.
There is good news. We do not have to remain lost. God, not Siri, has told us the way home. He provided the way home for us by the giving of His Son. His Son will not lead us down the wrong trail. He came from the Father. He knows the Father intimately. He sent the Holy Spirit to reveal His mind through His apostles, things they wrote down for us. We can know Him. We can know how to find Him. We do not have to guess. We do not have to wonder. All that was written so that we might believe (John 20:31). No man can know the Father unless he has heard and learned about Him through Jesus (John 6:44-45). There is one truth. That truth will show us the way to eternal life.
So, while we may lose something, we cannot afford to lose our souls. We can come to the Father through Jesus the Son. If we want to do His will, we can know His will (John 7:17).
Lost and found. What a relief to find what was lost. But greater still is the joy that comes from being found safe the arms of Jesus. Saved, washed, and forgiven by His grace.
Rickie Jenkins
