Lost…Then Found

Thank God it was an exceptionally mild December day.  Temps reached into the 60s.  It was a good day for us to get our spring water for drinking.  Standing there filling jugs made me think of another day not too long ago.  It was in early September.

Most of the kids had started school in our area but we had not yet begun.  Miss Debbie (a teacher in the church) wanted to spend a day out with my older two girls so that left Rachel and me alone.  On the spur of the moment, we called Pappy and asked if he’d like to hang out with us.  We went to a beach at a lake and had the place to ourselves.  The day was hot and dry, so different from the rain-saturated summer we’d just had.  We waded and had a competition skipping rocks on the choppy waves. The two laughed at me every time I squealed about a wayward fish brushing up against my feet.  I think they were trying to eat my toes.

From there we went to a little local pizza place that serves up some of the best pie we’ve ever had.  It’s quite the treat.  Rachel took lots of pictures and relished being one of three children, if only for a few hours.  We filled water jugs at “our” spring and then took Pappy home.  It was there, chatting with Grandma about our day out, that I noticed Rachel was missing one of her rhinestone clip-on earrings.  Her face immediately fell.  The day had gone from sunny and joyful to dark and awful for her in one brief twist.

I was mulling over choices of action on the short journey home and while we unloaded the water.  My first course of action was to call the restaurant.  It was a very pleasant woman who answered and took the time to look around our booth.  She then called back to tell me that the earring was not there.  She’d tell the woman who sweeps at night to take extra care to look for it.

“That’s my favorite pair, Mom.  They’re so comfortable.  What am I gonna do?” she wailed.

My heart went out to her.  Her ears aren’t pierced because of the terrible reaction she has to metal.  Even some of the clip-on earrings cause her to rash and chaff.

She mentally retraced her steps.  She was almost certain that she had both of the earrings at the restaurant.  We then tore apart our vehicle looking for it.

“We’re going back to the spring.”

Rachel felt like that’d be putting me out.  It wasn’t far but neither is it just a couple of miles away.

“We can’t wait until we get water again, Rachel.  If it’s there it could be crushed from other people getting water.  We need to go today.”

I think her heart sank a little when we saw a vehicle parked where we had been not long before.  What if it was too late?  What if it had been crushed?  Or carried away in someone’s tire tread?  Or covered over with dirt so that we’d never find it?  Not wanting to freak the woman out who was getting water as we rushed the area, I gave a brief  explanation and began to scan the dirt myself.  Meanwhile, Rachel had immediately jumped out of the vehicle and seemed to go directly to where it lay.  It happened so fast that I didn’t comprehend she’d found it until she walked towards me, a smile illuminating her face.

“Got it!” she said triumphantly.

“Already?”

“Yep.”

“Nothing damaged?”

“Nope, it’s perfect.”

That was the shortest trip I’d ever had at the spring.  And one of the happiest, I might add.

Years ago, Rachel’s older sister, Beth, had lost an earring at a Christmas party.  It, too, was one of her favorites.  I told her that God knew where it was, ask Him and He’d show her.  The next morning she said she had a dream that the earring was in her jeans’ pocket.  When she awoke, she looked, and sure enough, there it was.

People may say not to bother God with such insignificant things.  I say, Why not?  And who’s to judge what is significant or insignificant?  I look in the natural to my children.  If it concerns them, it concerns me.  They’re my kids.  I love them.

You know who I am?  I’m God’s kid, a daughter of Creator of the universe; Creator of me.  He loves me immeasurably more than I can think or imagine.  In a world of conditions, I can not wrap my mind around that kind of unconditional love.  And yet He has it for me.  And for you, if you’ve received it.

Give all your worries to Him, because He cares for you.  No matter how “big”, no matter how “small”, no matter anything~to Him give them all.  To have a Savior like that, a Friend, a Love beyond comprehension; Someone I can talk to anytime, anywhere, about anything…wow.  Words fail.  All words but: Thank You, God.

I pray that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height–to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.  He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.  GLORY!!!  Amen.  (Ephesians 3:17-20)