I get this now!

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"... or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.   Does she not light up 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." - Jesus (Luke 15:8-10)

I know that most of us who have been around church for a while have heard the triplet "lost" parables in some way, shape or form in the time we've been around church.  Usually, we skip over this one (and the one about 99 sheep) to go to the "lost (or prodigal) son" parable.  But I always have read these parables and thought "that's cool" - God is searching after me and when I'm found him and the angels are really happy.  Oooooo... warm feeling.  

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of the meaning of "rejoice with me" on my flight to Houston from Minneapolis.  For anyone that has been around me over the last 4 or 5 months, you have probably noticed that I am missing a very valuable possession to me... namely my Aggie class ring, which has always been prominently worn on my right index finger since May 1995.  In January, I misplaced this ring because I put it in (I thought) my gym bag and would wear it after working out (I don't wear rings when working out, sleeping, or showering) and misplaced it, to my chagrin.  For about four months, I felt "naked" as my most prized possession was lost somewhere in either my house, some gym bag, the trunk of my car, whatever.... and being so busy with life to look for it, I figured that I'd eventually get around to it... would occasionally rearrange the house to try to find it... but no luck.  

On my flight, I carried my roller bag laptop case and had put it over top because I was in the first row of coach and couldn't put it under the seats in front of me.  I put my ipod in that bag, so when we could get up I attempted to pull this bag out so I could get my ipod and listen to tunes... and being a tight fit I had to pull a little and in the process I heard this metallic "THUD" on the ground... wondering what happened and thinking that my laptop charger fell, I searched the floor of the plane to find.... an AGGIE RING.  At first, I thought it belonged to an Aggie that was sitting in that row of seats (class of '05) but after inspecting it found that it was MINE! :) :) :).  The flood of joy that overtook me... well I couldn't explain it but all I could do was look at the ring and be so grateful!!!!   I shortly thought of this parable and thought that God himself and the angels in Heaven were thinking the same happy thoughts (probably even more so) over me when I was found.  

Wow.  I am a prized possession of my great God.  :)  I knew that already but sometimes a mythical moment like this speaks to the heart better sometimes than mere words.  

And I really think that an Aggie ring is a far better find than a coin ;-)

chris <><

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