Lost?

I figured I was losing it - old age had claimed some more of my brain cells or something like that. I had lost an item of semi-important value to me and I just could NOT find it. ANYWHERE!! Did you ever do that? It sucks.

Do you know what those little things are that allow us to store computer files temporarily so they can be transferred from one computer to another? A flash drive or a jump drive? Whatever you want to call them. I had lost mine and I couldn't find it . . . anywhere.

It's loss was really kind of bothering to me because that little thing had some valuable files on it. One of the files was my annual Christmas letter. When I ran out of all the copies I had originally printed and needed some more, I couldn't find that stupid little thing to save my life! I actually had to borrow a friends copy of my letter from their Christmas card and use it to re-type the whole stinking thing. ANNOYING!!

There were some other files on there too. There were some downloaded videos I had saved. Those were replaceable. What was NOT replaceable were the family photos I had transferred from my camera to my work computer, and was in the process of bringing home on my jump drive. Grrr.

I looked everywhere for that stupid little thing. I looked at home. I looked in my pants pockets. All pockets, all pants, I did the same search through my coats. I looked at the office (twice), in my car (with a flashlight), I looked at church (the lost and found and the youth room). Nothing!

The weird thing was that I remembered putting it in my coat pocket. And I remembered, I thought, placing it on the dining room table next to our laptop but it just wasn't there!! It was lost for sure.

Christmas Eve morning, I was helping my wife get ready for our soon-to-be-coming Christmas guests. Our entire family was coming for Christmas Eve!! My jobs were to vacuum the entire house, fill the bird feeder, shovel the driveway and make the guest bed. All well within my extremely limited skill set.

As I began moving things off the living room floor to clear the way for Mr. Hoover, my wife pointed down at my feet as I picked up a basket of her magazines.

"Look! There's your jump thingy!"

I looked down and there it was! It had been hidden underneath the basket. How the heck did it get there???

The human brain is amazing - mine in particular. It didn't take me long to figure out just how in the world my jump drive had made it onto the living room floor from the dining room table. You too are one piece of information away from figuring this Christmas mystery out. Here's your last clue. We have two cats. Mhmm. Yeah. Nice.

And here's ANOTHER miracle of Christmas . . . we STILL have two cats.

Have you ever lost anything of value? Even after searching and searching you just could not find it? Then, did you ever find that item one day? Even after you had given up searching for it? That is such an amazing feeling.

You and I are not much different from that jump drive of mine.

We're just sitting here in this world (on the dining room table) minding our own business. We're just hanging out, doing the things we normally do. And even though we might not know it, we are of extreme value to God. He created us and placed "information" in our little storage devices (a yearning in our hearts and in our minds . . . for Him). All was right in our world. But then, the evil one comes(the role played this Christmas by our mischievous cat) and knocks us off our stable table and into a world of sin, We become sepataed from our owner (God). We become lost.

But oh, what great joy there is in heaven when even one of God's little lost jump drives . . . er, I mean sheep, is found (Luke 15:10).

May this Christmas be a new beginning for us all, as Christ's "Christmas presence" represented for us when He came into this lost world. Today we celebrate His arrival and the dawn of the hope that his birth, death and resurrection brought to all the nations. May he be born into OUR hearts anew, and may we, through Jesus Christ, become born ourselves . . . again. For we once we lost, but now have been found (Luke 15:32)

Merry Christmas to you all. Love you!!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." - Luke 2:11