Lost and Found

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

Losing your car keys—or anything else for that matter—can be frustrating, especially if you are not in the habit of losing or misplacing items.

I recently misplaced my car keys. Fortunately, I had a spare set in my purse. However, my house key, safety deposit box key and my father’s house key were on the lost key ring.

I have misplaced my keys before; however, they usually turn up after a quick search of my purse, house or car. This time, a search of my car and purse did not reveal the lost keys. I knew they were not in my house because I remembered putting them in my purse when I arrived at my destination in Tulsa.

I resigned myself to the fact that I had truly lost a set of keys for the first time in my life.

“Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll just get duplicates made tomorrow.”

Later that evening I was searching my purse for a business card. You guessed it; I found my keys.

I thought I had looked in every nook and cranny and secret hiding place in that purse for my keys. But I had overlooked a small zippered pocket inside the bag—one of many.

We can lose many things: eyeglasses, jewelry, money, friends, loved ones and pets.

We can lose our hair, think we have lost our wits, and at times, we know we have lost our sense of humor. We want to lose weight and hope we don’t lose our youth.

We can lose our patience .We can lose our way and we can lose hope. And some of us lose our sense of who we are.

We can also get lost in things, in success, in relationships, in trends and in self.

Many lost things can never be found nor replaced: lost time, lost opportunities, lost causes. If we were to take inventory of those things we have lost, we might feel an emptiness.

Helen Keller said, “Once I knew only darkness and stillness…my life was without past or future…but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.”

Like Helen Keller, we can embrace the rapture of living instead of allowing darkness and stillness to take over our lives by dwelling on what was lost. We can cling to the past and lose hope of a future or we can turn to the Lord.

He is the One who has stretched out his arms of hope. He is the only One who can lead us from emptiness to wholeness.

I once was lost but now I’m found. He saved a wretch like me.

He’s searching for the lost. He will bring home the strays. There will be rejoicing.

Are you lost? Stand at the foot of the cross and seek the One who came to save.