Searching for ~ Part 2

If I write anything, it's because my family is asleep. For example, my children are currently tucked in their beds and my husband has been asleep on the couch for an hour now.  Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives just wasn't captivating enough to keep his weary eyelids open.  However, my mouth is watering for those Thai chicken wings Guy is chomping.

I wrote about the great key loss and my frantic search, on my iPhone from my bed with my beloved snoring beside me. As a story will do to its writer, it changed me first. I was ready to wake up early and begin searching for my Jesus. I planned to get up 30 minutes earlier than usual. I would shower and grab my coffee and Bible long before the children were calling from their beds.

I nudged my man, and told him my plan. I was setting my alarm, but if I wasn't up when he got up, then he needed to wake me. He chuckled and said with sarcasm, "OK, sure." Before, I would have been bummed at his unbelief in me. But this time I was confident I didn't need his help. After reflecting on my frantic search, I knew I would prove my doubting husband wrong. He would wake to find me sitting in the sun room, coffee in hand, scouring my Bible for my Jesus.

I knew just what I wanted to find. The parable of the the woman tossing her house upside down for a lost coin. It was a coin right? I couldn't remember the exact details, but I would discover them in the morning.

The only thing I've forgotten to mention is that I'm not a morning girl.  Unless there's a beach and a sun rising over it, I'm in my bed until the last possible second.  So when the alarm went off half an hour early, I did what I was highly motivated to do.  I pressed snooze. When my phone chimed 9 minutes later, my husband nudged me and mumbled, "You wanted to get up." I quickly thanked him for helping me said, "I lied, let me sleep." He laughed, and I slept.

I finally made my way to the coffee pot an hour after I'd sent my love off to work, and finished eating breakfast with my children. I tried not to be too hard on myself. I remembered His grace abounds, and I should offer it to myself. The smell of  that precious black liquid woke me from my sleepy fog, and I realized my longing was still there. I still wanted to search for my Jesus.  I quickly jumped to plan B.

"PBS kids, anyone?" Of course they both agreed.  Within minutes I was in the sun room with my coffee and my Bible. I was ready to search while listening to the sweet sounds of Curious George.  Unlike yesterday I was not giving up on my search. I was eager to relate my experience to that parable Jesus spoke so many years ago.

I looked in the first gospel of Matthew. No parable of a lost coin. The search continued to Mark. I checked all the subtitles. Again, no parable of a lost coin. I was really hoping I hadn't imagined its existence, when I finally found it in Luke.

"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she 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." ~Luke 15:8-10

His red words stared at me. He is not the lost key. He is not the lost coin. Jesus is God. He is never lost.

I am. I am the lost one.

He came looking for me, He tore through the house, and motivated by love He did the unthinkable.

For me; the sinner, the girl who can't wake up early, but does think she can control her life.

His words humbled me, and I had found my Jesus again.

The Jesus who had found me, rejoiced over me, and reminded me again to repent of my self reliance, and rest in His grace.