Gratitude for the Lost Being Found

By Belinda
There is such celebration for lost things found.

Nearly four years ago, at the end of a work day, I found that the silver necklace I was wearing that day had somehow come undone and the pendant had slipped from the chain. The small amethyst coloured stone, in a setting of silver, had vanished.

The stone was unusual in that it changed colour depending on factors in the environment--sometimes it was lavender, other times pale ice blue; but it wasn't the stone or setting itself that was of value--the pendant was originally Mum's and had been a gift from her mother some 65 years before.

On the day I lost it I had been at a hotel, a restaurant and two offices, in three different towns. Finding the pendant seemed hopeless, but I tried. I made phone calls and people went and looked for it and checked to see if it had been handed in, but it wasn't found.

I went to the gravel parking lot opposite my office, where I had parked my car. I looked in the approximate location that I had parked, but couldn't see it. A colleague asked me what I was looking for and I told her. A determined glint filled her eye and she said, "When my shift ends I will look for it Belinda."

I thanked her for her kind promise, but didn't expect the wonderful phone call when it came, telling me that she had, against all odds, found the tiny silver pendant amongst the gravel stones. My joy was overwhelming.

Lost things...God has a particular passion for them. He never gives up his patient pursuit of the lost. Our dogged determination to find something precious that is lost does not compare to his tireless tenacity in search of the lost.

I am grateful that when I lose myself he finds me and when someone close seems to have lost their way, I can trust them to him.