Some people think they are lost. I've even had people tell me, "I'm so far gone that God would never take me back. I'm just lost." Well, let me tell you a story. My wife has a real long suit in trusting God to help her find things. She is not usually someone who misplaces things. But, when things go missing, she is almost always the one who ends up finding them. She found the timers we use for our holiday lights several weeks ago. I looked all over the house, and I even looked in the closet of my office three times! That's exactly where she found them. But, that's nothing compared to the little diamond she found. A couple of years ago, for our 35th wedding anniversary, I got Kathy a new diamond ring to replace the one she has been wearing since 1971. The diamond in the ring from 1971 was so small I do not know how they could have even called it a diamond. But I got her a new one, and it certainly wasn't extravagant. It has three diamonds in it, and I think they are pretty tiny. And if you were to lose one, well who in the world could ever find it? Kathy could, and she did. Twice! We have a metal shed in the back yard that we use for storage. Kathy had been cleaning it out and noticed the next day that she was missing one of her tiny little diamonds. She looked everywhere, including in the yard where she had been working. She looked in the grass hoping to maybe see a glimmer of light. She looked in and around the three cardboard boxes that were still out there near the shed. No diamond. Then, almost two days later, she walked over toward the shed again, and looked. On one of the open flaps of one of the boxes, there it was! She had found her diamond. We were so grateful. She told the people at the jewelry store where we purchased it that there must be something loose. We had hoped that when they put that little diamond back in the setting that they would have fixed the problem. After all, they had the ring in the repair shop for two and a half weeks. But scarcely a week went by with the repaired ring on her finger and, no! It couldn't be. The same stone was again missing. Now I told you Kathy is great at finding things. But could she find her tiny diamond again, the second time? About six hours after she noticed it missing, and having looked everywhere, she had a feeling it was in the kitchen. But how could you possibly even see it if it were in the kitchen? Nonetheless, she looked around the kitchen here and there, but no diamond. She checked out the counters, no diamond. In the sink, perhaps? No, no diamond. But wait! What's was that tiny sparkling little shining on the tile floor? Well what do you know? She had found it again, for the second time in less than three months. Now here's my point. If my wife Kathy, who is so wonderful, but only human, can find a little lost diamond, twice, could a person ever be so lost that God could never find them again? The truth of the matter is that God is waiting for us to come back to Him. Read about it in the parable in the Gospel of Luke, often mistakenly referred to as, the parable of "The Prodigal Son." It really ought to be called the parable of "The Forgiving Father." People feel lost because of their own actions. They condemn themselves for what they have done. They end up feeling so badly about what they have done that they feel too ashamed to even approach God. But, from God's point of view they are not lost; they have just chosen to distance themselves. The open and forgiving arms of our loving Father are never far away. His love does not waver. No one is ever lost to Him.
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