Sunday thoughts: loved, lost and found

 

In our house there are many special toy, all loved and played with. But this week one was lost. Bunny was dropped on the way to school. 

Bunny is made from a sock - one of the lowliest of garments.  She has a dodgy foot because I forgot to leave a gap in the right place so she could be turned right way out (it's difficult to concentrate on instructions when sewing with a four-year-old).  Her face is odd because my daughter felt the off cuts from her tummy made a great nose and mouth.  But she is so precious - because we made her together.  We cut and stitched, and designed.  After we took this photo, she had a ribbon chosen for her and heart sewn on her tummy.   She was carefully made by a mother and daughter, spending quality time together.  She is loved not because of her own particular qualities, but because we made her.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
(Psalm 139:13)

Sometimes toys accompany us as far as the school gates.  This week bunny had a turn.  But half-way there I realised she was gone.  I promise I'll find her on the way home, I said.  And so the walk home was a long and stressful one.  Bunny was irreplaceable.  I had to find her!

‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4)

So imagine my elation when I finally got home - having been unsuccessful, there she was sitting on the door knob of our front door!  Maybe it was a neighbour or maybe an angel who put her there out of harm's way, ready to be taken home. I was so happy I cried.

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:5-7)


~~~


We are lowly, not made from a sock, but from the dust of the earth. And yet we have value, and are loved, as we are made by God - made in and from love. We may be knocked around by the world - some of us scars and bits missing - but our value is not defined by that. It is defined by the one who made us and he loves us because he made us.

But God is not a four-year-old who drops her toys on the way to school. He gives us a choice whether to seek him, although it breaks his heart when we are lost. But if we run to him, he will not let us go.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)