Lost and found

Oh, the things that people lose at church! Bibles, and more Bibles. Copious numbers of coats, caps, and casserole pans. Pacifiers and mouth guards. Planners that didn’t get planned in. Journals that journeyed out of sight.


At least once a year, usually twice, my church displays the lost wares that are normally tucked out of sight in a cabinet marked “lost and found.” People whose names are inscribed inside Bibles are contacted. Some come retrieve them, some don’t.

If my Bible got lost, I’d be turning every pew upside down to find it. It’s full of devotional and sermon notes. I’d really, really miss it.

In thinking about our lost-and-found table, I considered the Bible's stories about lost things. Four are slotted into the Gospel of Luke, right after another:

*Salt that has lost its flavor (Luke 14:34-35). In Bible times, salt didn’t come in the pure crystalline form we have for table salt. It included impurities that remained as residues in the bottom of salt containers. The analogy is people who start out seeming to be the “real thing” as Christians, but they’re really like the disgusting powders at the bottom of the jar.

*Lost sheep (15:3-7). How many of us can identify with the one lost sheep that the Shepherd risked all to bring back?

*Lost coin (15:8-10). My tendency to misplace things increases as I age, so I feel for this poor woman who’d lost what was probably part of her dowry and insurance in old-age. But the truth here is more like the Campus Crusade evangelistic slogan of a recent decade: “I found it,” “it” being a life-changing relationship with Christ. No wonder Heaven is throwing a party!

*Lost son (15:11-32). Two sons were really lost: one to his materialistic folly, and one to his anger and resentment. One found forgiveness through repentance.

That parable makes me think about things I should be losing, like resentment when somebody else got the breaks. Resentment is not of God. Pass the trash can.

Some other things worth losing: Love for the world’s fads and trinkets, love of pleasure, and love of being admired. John nailed them with this description: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 KJV).

Things I don’t want to lose:

*A love for God’s Word: “Oh how I love your law” (Psalm 119:97).

*Patience. (Anybody else on this one?)

*The sense of awe regarding our holy God.

*The amazement that Christ would die for me.

*My ministry passion.

*My testimony.

Oh, yes: my Bible. After so many years of use and markings, it’s an old friend. Not irreplaceable, of course, but still personalized for me. So far, I’ve kept it off the lost-and-found table. However, when my aging tendency to forget or misplace things causes a few moments of panic, my husband’s been known to say, “We’re in for a ride!”

“For better, for worse,” I retort, “and don’t you forget that!”