Lost Library Book

{Not another lost library book....}

Lost things drive me crazy......especially library books.  I guess it's because there's just this honor system of lending....they lend me free books and I return them....unharmed and on-time.

So....when I checked my online account the other night and asked my son to go get a book that was due and we couldn't find it....I started to feel a little crazy!  The lost book was one from The Lightening Thief series and hardback....meaning about a $30 book!

You see.....this isn't this first time.....or the second time.....or even the THIRD time that we have lost a library book.  (And for a person who is a little compulsive about order.....that's HARD to admit!)

Do you know how hard it is to walk into the library once again....hanging my head in shame and admit......"I've lost another library book...."  At some point I just expect the librarian to not even say a word and just point to the door.......

So...are you understanding the tight-in-the-chest-anxious-because-I-have-to-walk-in-there-again feeling?

Well, I did my search....under coaches, pillows.....looking on desks and in piles of stuff.....NO WHERE is the book.  It's now 11:15 pm and I just want to go to bed and not have the weight of this library book hanging over me.....

As I got  into bed and my husband and I prayed about the day and various things, I just shared with him my silly request of praying for the lost library book.  He knows me well and didn't even hestitate to say, "Let's pray about it right now!"

After we prayed we were about to go to sleep, but the heat vent was rattling and driving me crazy, so I got up to step on it to make it stop rattling.  As I walked over, I passed a stack of books on my husband's shelf.....and caught a glimpse of the words Lancaster County Library System.....Yippee!!!  The lost book!! 

(I know it's a blurry pic, but it TOTALLY represents how I felt!! )

Somehow, it got mixed in with my husband's books!!  (which are plentiful!!)  I jumped around the bedroom and ran down the hall to tell the boys.....who were still awake...grrr!  But they were so excited, too!

The Bible talks about finding lost things.....in Luke 15 there's a whole series about "lost" things.....The passage talks about a lost sheep and the longest story is about a lost son.  This part tells about a lost coin....

“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.”

You felt my excitement over finding the library book......do you realize that God feels more excitement over finding a lost YOU??  In each of the stories, something valuable is lost....and it's searched for until it's found.

The third story of something lost is pretty familiar....a younger son asks for his share of inheritance before the father dies....rather bold.  He then goes out and spends it all.....on prostitutes, gambling, wild living...

Eventually, the younger son returns home....humbled and ashamed, ready to beg to be a servant on his father's estate, not realizing that the whole time, his Father has been looking for him....waiting for his one day return.

Not only is the Father waiting for the son, but when he sees him, he runs......now in our 2011 American viewpoint, it's not odd to see a Dad run, but you need to think Middle Eastern man running....hmmm, don't see many of them doing that....it's just not proper or acceptable.

But the Father is so excited.....overjoyed.....thrilled to see his son return, he doesn't care what is proper.

In the same way....God waits for all of us to come back to Him.....He is anxious about our return and overjoyed when we do......no matter where we've been or what we've done!

I forget so easily......I was so passionate about finding the library book and wanted to tell everyone.....am I as passionate about telling people how much the Father is searching for lost "things" and how overjoyed He is when they are found?