Lost and Found

"Mom, you can't leave your purse in the car, someone will steal it!" my daughters insisted while I was visiting them in California. I gave in and placed it in the trunk.  Never did I think that I would have to experience something like this in Michigan.  People don't steal from you here like they do in big towns! Right?

Working feverishly in my classroom, putting up bulletin boards, arranging supplies and getting ready for the students who will arrive on September 4th has been the focus of my attention lately. On Wednesday I arrived at school, Big Lots bags in hand that contained a Toy Story rug, room freshener, sanitizing wipes, and duct tape. Spent a few minutes getting caught up with fellow teachers and then dropped the bags and my purse in my room. For some reason I set my keys and phone in a desk drawer. Opening the broken window in my room, I made a mental note to ask when it would be fixed. After a few hours of prepping for the big first day of school, walking back and forth to the printer and a conversation with a maintenance person, I decided that it was time to call it a day. "Now where did I put my purse", I thought to myself.  Over the next 30 minutes I looked in my car, called Big Lots to see if I had left it there, asked several teachers to help me check my room, looked in all of their rooms and finally looked in my desk.

It was no where! The thought kept replaying itself in my mind, "Could someone have stolen it?" It meant that they crawled through my window into my classroom and then out again.  I didn't want to believe it.

 Disheartened, I left my classroom, stopped by Big Lots just to check and make sure that my purse was not there and then sadly went home.

The small black purse contained my wallet, sun and reading glasses, church keys, and a brand new lipstick. My mind was spinning with what I needed to do.

Cancel credit cards,

Order new license,

File a police report

Buy a new lipstick

Buy new glasses

Keep my purse locked in a drawer!

Two days later we received a call from a the Department of Public Works in Kentwood Michigan informing us that they had recovered my purse from a trashcan in a nearby park. I have to say that I had lots of emotions going on. Excitement that what was lost had been found. Questions regarding the contents of the purse, would my brand new lipstick be inside? Anger that I had to cancel my credit cards and obtain a new license. A little fear that someone had violated my trust by stealing from me. I couldn't focus on these things, only that it had been found. Honestly a small piece of me thought that maybe I had misplaced it somewhere!


Nervously I stood at the counter of the Public Works Department, "what would the purse look like and would my lipstick be inside?" Outwardly the purse looked as I had left it in my room, but inside the contents showed the signs of someone rummaging through it. Sadly,my reading glasses and my new lipstick were absent! 

The bible is gives many examples of things that were lost and then found. In Luke 15:1-32 there are 3 such stories.  The prodigal son, the Lost sheep and the lost coin. In all of these looms the beautiful picture of the Father lovingly receiving, searching for and restoring what was lost. My purse is such a small thing, yet I noticed that I was preoccupied with finding it.  Imagine how much more God is preoccupied with those who are lost. We are His. 

Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.Psalm 100:3


Thank you Father for always searching for us!