Guarantee

You can almost go to the bank with it. Put whatever in my hand and it will disappear while you are watching. The “it ” can be as important as a specific tax paper or just as ordinary as, ” Now where are my glasses?,” after I’ve taken a bath. This year has revealed three items, searched for and given up as lost.

I can’t even guess how long I had lost contact with item 1 – maybe 10 years. In my childhood home we had two pair of scissors. One was for sewing and the other lived in the drawer of the kitchen table and were used only for paper and string. They were the “Put the scissors back where you found them!” pair. I inherited them, brought them to Rice Blvd, felt I had moved them to Swift in 2014, but never laid eyes on them. In January of this year, I cleaned a drawer next to the printer and there they were, waiting to be found. As of this moment, I think I can go right to their new dwelling place. Rejoice!

Number 2 on the list vanished one Wednesday night last fall. I have a special house key ring of a giraffe that a first grader brought me home from Kenya. I take only my phone and that key to choir, have a ride home, and go on with life. Except one Thursday, the key ring had vanished. I looked under, and over, and in, and no key ring. I got in the house, didn’t I? I even checked the garbage can. Two weeks ago I put on a light weight jacket, stuck my hand in the pocket and there it was, waiting for me. Rejoice!

Number 3 has a story all its own. About 44 years ago a college student lived with us. At some point he gave me a special coffee scoop. One scoop equalled grounds for one cup of coffee. I kept it a glass next to the coffee grounds to avoid little black bits from collecting in the cabinet. Last fall I was reaching in the cabinet, knocked over the glass, and saw that the scoop had fallen out. It was not on the counter, not on the floor, did not bounce into the washroom. I even had middle son run a ruler under the refrigerator to check. Amazement and puzzlement, yet it was nowhere to be found until last week. I was being extra careful pouring water into the coffee pot and there was the scoop lying in the bottom, just enough space for it to lie flat and unseen. I called the searching son and said, “You’ll never guess what? Rejoice!”

In the 15th chapter of Luke, three items of various worth are lost. All are searched for and a celebration held when each is found. Join with me, my friends, Rejoice!

And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!”

Luke 15:9