lectio divina:: like 15

the other day I walked past jane's room and she looked particularly sad. she was playing with her second new playset that she bought with her own money; a bakery for her dolls, but she didn't seem to be enjoying it much. she just stood there, moving the dolls around slowly.

"what's the matter Jane?"
"I can't find a loaf of bread."
"you mean this one?" I asked-
"no- there are three of them. I can only find 2 of them."
I started looking around. I opened a drawer and found one billion plastic accessories.
"here is a loaf of bread!" I said.
"that's not the right kind of bread. its too long. I'm looking for the shorter bread."

so we looked all over her room. under the bed, behind the bookshelf, in the drawers, no bread. no bread = blue girl.

"let's walk backwards a bit. when did you last see the bread?"
"well, Sarah had the bread in the basket of her bike. she was bringing it home from the bakery when she fell off of her bike. she fell over there-"

so we looked over where Sarah (the little doll on the left) fell off of her bike- which led to a gap between Jane's desk and her dresser- we pulled away the furniture, and there was the bread, resting on a ledge on the side of Jane's dresser. I would have never found it, but Jane spotted it immediately. that girl went from gloomy to elated. she rushed in to tell Deanna the good news.

what surprised me is that she even noticed that it was missing. that playset came with 85 pieces, but jane immediately knew when one was missing. she even had other bread loaves that she could have used, but was not interested. she wanted that particular piece. the set wasn't complete without it. to me, it was just a plastic piece of bread, but to jane it was very important.

it reminded me of that story that jesus told about the woman looking for her lost coin in luke 15:
"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.’"

it sounds just like jane and her plastic bread! but then Jesus continues- and says that God is like Jane when she is looking for her lost bread- He concludes the story by saying:

"in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

God is searching for His lost kids just like a lady searches for her lost coin, or like a shepherd searches for his lost sheep, or like a nine year old searches for her lost plastic bread. those lost kids may be insignificant to you and me, but to Him, they are very, very important. and when He finds them, He is elated. the entire realm of heaven celebrates.

so if you're off hiding, let Him find you.
and if you've been found, join Him in His search.

God is love.
-rev-rob