Minutes of Meetings with God
and with Myself

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I Really Lost It ...

I really lost it! I really lost it this time, not just misplaced it, but, really, really, really, really lost it. Not my mind, that's been gone for a long time. What I've lost is my exceedingly important and highly prized, leather coin purse.

I know it's not macho and I know it's probably "old person behavior," but I've carried a coin purse for years. I simply cannot stand to have a bunch of change rattling around loose in my pocket, it gets lost too easily. And, a coin purse lets me stash some bills in my pocket without worrying about them fluttering out when I pull out my car keys. Usually, the coin purse just keeps me from losing stuff, some of it important stuff, and now I've lost the blasted thing.

I'm not really upset about the money that was in it being gone; it's the coin purse, itself. It's the one that my wife gave me a few years ago. It's extra special because of who gave it to me. And, there were some things in it that are dear to me, much more dear than the $12.86 that was in it. Not that I keep track of money, but there was a ten dollar bill, two singles, three quarters, a dime and a penny --- just kidding).

With that coin purse, along with the almost worth-less money, I lost some priceless things.

There was a small sea shell that a friend brought back for me when she made her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a little something that I carried with me to remind me of her and her thoughtfulness and her prayers for me in my pilgrimage through life. The shell has had even more meaning for me since my wife and I went to the Holy Land ourselves. The shell had been pretty well beaten up by the sea and by the years it has spent in my coin purse. But the shell is beyond putting a value on and is irreplaceable.

There was a little brass plumb-bob that another friend made for me on a fancy computer controlled lathe in an experimental machine shop where he had just been hired. He and I had been talking about his life and what he wanted to do. He had done some serious sorting out of himself. The plumb-bob was one the first things he made as he started a new job and a new life. It was his way of saying thanks for my little bit of help as he "straightened" things out in his life, and a plumb-bob just somehow seemed appropriate. That plumb-bob sure came in handy a couple of times when I needed to get something straight.

Then, there was a little "Cross in my pocket" that reminded me of yet another friend. The friend had gone through some difficult times, a scary, highly emotional roller-coaster bunch of stuff. I had listened while she talked, we prayed together and she prays for me and I still pray for her. She gave me a little Cross as her expression of gratitude for my "being there". I put the one she gave me in a safe place and, carried another (plainer and less expensive) little Cross in my pocket that reminds me not only of her, but of the one who went through horribly scary stuff, too, to show us, to show me, how totally God loves us and how far God will go to take care of us.

There was an acorn in that coin purse, too. I picked the acorn up some time ago while my dog, Sam, and I were running out on old Lloyd Road. There are three large oak trees along one stretch of the road. The acorn was a reminder that even huge and imposing things often start out extremely small, so small that I can hold it in my hand, and take considerable time to grow to maturity. The Kingdom of God starts so small, yet it grows so unbelievably powerful and large.

And, I had something that was rather like a marble, it was a translucent blue, and it was from a worship service at our last Detroit Annual Conference in which we remembered our baptism. It was offered as a keepsake of a very special invitation to think about that moment when we, when I, became a member of the body of Christ. I ended up doing quite a bit of thinking about my baptism and decided that I wanted to keep that reminder in my pocket so I would be challenged to think about my baptism and what it means every time I opened my coin purse.

Finally, I had a money clip in that coin purse. It was a beautiful gold one with an Indian head nickel mounted on it. It was a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law, Carol.

Well, I've turned the house upside down, twice, torn the car all apart, looked all over the church building (one of the places I last remember having the thing), went to the last restaurant I ate in (they didn't have my coin purse, but they had someone else's checkbook that had been lost and found), and basically searched and fretted and searched and fretted about the coin purse. I still haven't found it. But, I think I understand something Jesus said in Luke 15:3-10 a little better.

Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety?nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety?nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

What we lose immediately becomes extremely important to us and extra special, even though we may have plenty left without what we lost. And so we search, running all over every where, turning the house or office upside down looking for the one thing that somehow got away from us. We search and search and search, and we are not happy until we find what we are looking for. Oh! When we find what we have lost, we are ever so happy! We are like the people in the parable, we say to anyone close enough to listen: "I've looked all over the place and for what seems like forever, just to find this thing that I lost, now I've found it and I am ever so relieved and delighted, I could just party!"

On one hand, Jesus wants me to be a searcher for the lost lamb and for the lost coin, to bring them back to the blessedness of his Kingdom. On the other hand, I think Jesus wants me to understand that he is to me like I am to my lost coin purse. To Jesus, I am like my lost coin purse. What makes me worth looking for isn't "the cash." What makes me worth looking for is the keepsakes, the priceless and irreplaceable stuff. And just like I will keep looking for what I have lost, he will keep looking for me, until I find him.

Amen!