Lost...and Found

Have you ever lost something?  I mean really, really, lost it...lost so well that you think you can't ever find it?  I have.  But, I have learned that if I look as hard as I can, then get down on my knees and ask for help, the thing I am looking for usually is found.  I still have to look after praying, but I seem to be directed in the places to look.  At the very least, I am at peace knowing that the object of my seeking is not far.

Only once has this not worked.  I had brought a brand new digital camera to my classroom at school when I was teaching high school.  The camera disappeared at some point during the day and never appeared.  Prayers had no effect.  I am pretty sure that someone thought they needed it more than me and helped themselves.

Working on the premise that prayers will always help me find what I am seeking, I knelt one day to ask for help in finding the only key to my car, the kind with the auto-lock/unlock buttons that cost $150 - $250 to replace.  We had been looking for it for the whole day on Saturday.  It was the weekend, so I had been just borrowing my husband's car and my daughter's car.  By Sunday morning I was pretty worried.  Why had I not prayed about it?  I had!  With all the gratitude and humility I could muster each day.  On Monday, my husband would go to work, my daughter would go to work, and I needed to go to work.  I tried looking one more time, but to no avail.   I looked (for at least the 5th or 6th time) in the hall tree, the bathroom, the kitchen, under tables, sofas, and under sofa cushions that have been licked by the dog and dripped on by my boys with who knows what snack, syrup, drink, cereal, or other foreign looking object that I had not had time to clean.

After washing my hands, I went out to my car to look once again.  Yes, I usually lock my car, but had not done so for whatever reason this time.  After flipping up seats and looking all over, I decided to pray one more time.  With all sincerity, I thanked God for blessings, asking for forgiveness for not doing things right all of the time, for not always knowing how to listen.  As tears started to fall, I told God of my faith in Him, how I knew that he answered prayers, and that if my keys were to be found, he knew where they were.  I would not doubt him in this matter or in any other regarding faith.

After praying, I paused a bit to reflect on the difference of that prayer.  God had allowed my to look for two days, to try my faith, and to create an opportunity where I reflected deeply on whether I knew he could answer this prayer.  I knew that there was a lesson and some growth in this experience.  God loves each of us.  He wants to help, but wants us to become independent, faithful creatures.  He wants us to know that he will let us struggle, but that he will answer our prayers, not on our time, but on His time...the time that is best for us.

I walked into the house without fear of losing my keys, and filled with joy at being touched by the Spirit of God.  As I passed the sofa, I kind of glanced at it, then walked past the back door of our house to go into my bedroom.  Entering the bedroom, I realized that I had been outside Saturday morning to change the shavings in the rabbit cage with the cedar shavings I had just bought at the feed store.  I then walked out to the patio, and there shining in the morning sun were my keys.

Now, as I ponder that day, I often think of how prayers are answered and how we can find lost things, other than keys, through deep, sincere, prayer.   We can find our faith, peace with another person's actions, the right words to say to someone hurting, the thing we can do to help someone that is struggling, or patience with our own situation.  God will answer.  God will help.  Sometimes, we will be asked to struggle in faith.  Sometimes the answer will come right away.  I have never been disappointed in prayer.  There is hope.

Circles

     I am pondering. Pondering, you might say, about ponds. Like when a pebble goes in the water pondering. As a child, we lived in a neighborhood with access to a small lake, Pine Lake. Boats are allowed on the lake only if the have a very small powered motor, or if it is powered by a person and a paddle. As a result, the surface of the lake is always very smooth. We would sit on the dock, my siblings or friends and I, especially when it was too cold to swim (often)and fish or throw in objects, watching to see how far the concentric rings created by the splash of a pebble would last. If two rocks were put into the lake at the same time, the rings would cross and blend before dissipating.
      Texas is far, far away from that small little lake in Washington State. But, my thoughts often go there, remembering the peace, happy memories, and that cold, cold water.
     So often I hear people say that our choices are our own, and they are. We really are the ones that decide when and where to drop the pebbles. The thing about those, pebbles, though, is that they create concentric rings that continue on for a really long time. Sometimes the path for those circles cross other circles from other pebbles. It is not really obvious when the waves really stop. Each circle becomes larger and larger, encompassing more and more surface area. With a lot of pebbles, crossing another circle is a given.
     We make our choices, but each choice puts in motion a wave or ripple that will affect someone else.  What kind of effect will my choices make?  When and where will my ripple cross another?  Will my ripple change the course of another?  Should it? Or, should I just make the best ripple I can with my own little pebbles, knowing that the physics and laws put in place by a loving Heavenly Father will still create beauty, no matter how I choose to place my pebble?