The cry goes through every household with different words. Do you see my phone? Where is my wallet. I know I put my I-Pad right on this shelf. I can’t find my homework? Eventually all turn up. The lost may be right in sight, or under a sheet of paper, or even kicked under the chair. I live in what might be called a five room house, and many a time I get my daily exercise searching for what I just had in my hand. Often it is found after my mind and eye agree on what I am looking for.
Part of my problem is I am not a place for everything and everything in its place person. I plan on being, and my hands let go before the place is reached. The missing magnetic pin cushion is a case in point. Large as a purple donut, it is filled with pins that stay in place even when it is tilted. I brought it from the upstairs garage room to use with masks I was working on at the dining room table. It vanished! I made the circle, uncovered and recovered piles, and went on to another task in frustration. Typing at my desk, my eyes strayed to the back of the recipe box, which was out of place also, and there was the pin cushion. I spent one morning looking for the black cover that identifies my I-Pad, only to realize it was turned over to the silver side and consequently ignored.
The same unfocused looking counts for what I don’t see in people. Once I had a difficult student. I called his name only to correct or redirect or inquire once more about homework. We also had that year a child with problems in vision and movement. We were camping out with a class of 18 and taking a night nature walk. I was concentrating on counting in the dark when I heard a whimper. Child 2 was in a nightmare situation for him. Bushes jumped out to block his way and what vision he had was lost in the dark. Then I heard Voice 1 that I immediately recognized. “Don’t worry. I’m here. Hold my hand, and I’ll tell you where to go.” I found a child that night I never knew existed and looked at him in a new way from that that moment on.
So I’ve lost people by thinking I knew what they were like or where they should belong. Trivial surface sightings can hide pearls of great price. Non-stop gum chewing jaws can recommend poems to keep forever, and the stringy haired teen tosses off fixing my computer with “No sweat.” From finding a misplaced pincushion to the flickering fire in a casual acquaintance, the knowing what is lost and what is really important to find needs to be a focused task The lost and look for stories Jesus told cover them all: the sheep, the coin, and the person. At times, being found may be the blessing for me.
“Rejoice with me, for I have found (my sheep, my coin, my son) which was lost.”
Luke 15:6, 9, 32
Let Me Tell Ya 