We have had some beautiful weather recently. Cool nights. Partially cloudy days perfect for outdoor activities.
But this past few days, a little wetness has fallen from the sky. Well, sometimes it is not so little, it was a downpour of torrential mass. Coming back through the mountains of Charlottesville, the rain was hard enough I had to slow the car to 30 and pray the AWD would keep me on the road.
Now, as we had to occasionally go outside into the rain, buy wife and I headed to the car rack too grab our Mountain Hardware rain shell.
I love these. They have trekked with me though the ice covered mountains in Zion. The saw the hoodoos of Bryce. It descended the cold, snowy steep trail down the Black Canyon of Gunnison. And, it saw the muddy trails of the Bad Lands.
We need protection in the rain. Shells that aren’t porous. That keep our torso dry and make us look snazzy at the same time. So we look to the coat rack and …. One of the coats was missing. And here is the shocker – it wasn’t mine. I misplace stuff all the time – but this time – may wife couldn’t find her shell. (I am trying not to snicker as I type this) She misplaced something. Mrs. Perfect slipped. The Doctor of Organization has a minutiae of mess-up.
Now, she said she wasn’t upset. She said it was fine. But I could tell, this vexed her.
She looked in every closet. She searched in the FJ and the Crosstrek.She checked behind furniture, under chairs, and still no positive result.
While she was busy with helping the media team in Praise Team rehearsal, I drove to the local diners and checked if she left it there. I wanted to be the hero. But still, no rain shell.
Here we go … what do we do now? What do you do when you lose something? What are our options?
- We looked to replacing the item. I would love to get her an Arc’teryx. Well, I would love to get me an Arc’teryx.
- We could wait and just hope it would show up – maybe at work, maybe someone picked up the wrong jacket, maybe the gremlin who took it will return it when they are done on their hike.
- We could drop the hint to our son for him to get her a new one for Mother’s Day. He would put in on my credit card anyway.
- We reached out to the extreme and wondered if she might have left it on the last road trip – in Fort Worth. After several texts and prompts, we discovered the location of the missing rain shell. Wohoo. I just saved $300.
There are some parables Jesus tells about people losing something. A widow loses a coin. She loses 10% of her life saving. She searches. She sweeps. She tears apart her house … And WOHOO … she finds it.
A shepherd loses a sheep – only one. But this is powerful. The shepherd secures the 99 other sheep and he goes looking for the one.
He goes looking for the one.
The lesson of the lost sheep is about how our loving God comes looking for you – even the one.
Lisa will get her rain shell back. But the important truth …
God loves you so much, he left His home in glory to come for you.
What a wonderful truth.
Muddy Shoes by Todd 
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