Finding the Lost Diamond and the Lost Coin

I was inspired for this blog today by a friend’s good news yesterday. She posted: "Praise report... my engagement ring had lost the diamond about 2 weeks ago. Bruce and I tore apart the house and cars looking for it. No diamond. We pretty much chalked it up to being lost. We have had a lot of challenges financially and we felt Satan has just been testing our patience and pocketbooks lately. God says to stay strong in Him. He promises to always be with us. This has been our comfort. While cleaning the kitchen floor tonight, to get ready for an event tomorrow night, Bruce saw something sparkle and glitter. My diamond!!! How many times we have walked by here, including the dog who eats everything off the floor! We have been so busy that we had not vacuumed the floor the past 2 weeks. And it was by the trash can, but never in it! What a wonderful surprise! I truly believe it is a God thing. So, take that Satan! In your face👊🏻! 🙏

I loved that story. My comment to her: "Redemption story! So beautiful! My inspiration for an upcoming blog -- like the woman in the Bible searching for her lost coin! Thanks be to God! What the enemy meant for evil -- God turned it into a testimony for you and ME!"

The woman in Luke 15:8-10 was determined, surely not a quitter – and she found the coin, she was relentless in sharing her good news. Bonus for her – she got her exercise by running around, and I got a blog! Jesus taught this parable, sandwiched between the Prodigal Son story and the lost sheep story. He describes the length He will go to find us. The story doesn't talk about how the coin got lost but instead talks about the delight in the woman when she found the coin.

We are all lost coins (and diamonds). We all have parts in our life that God is desperate to get into and change it for the better if we let Him. Jesus used that story to describe us. The coins must have been very precious, probably worth the daily wage of a worker in today’s times. If she had a hundred coins, maybe she wouldn’t have noticed, but one out of ten, she was ready to go all the way to search for it. Fortunately, we have a Father that notices everything that gets lost. God goes all the way out to search for the one coin that goes missing.

It describes how vauable we are to Him. We are precious to God. He sees us and loves us and wants each of us in the fold. The end of that parable, Jesus said in verse 10: "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Maybe you’re locked in -- tight and secure – loving, living, resting in God’s Kingdom. On the other hand, maybe you’re hiding out somewhere in a nook or cranny – holding out a little longer, wanting it your way a little longer. But, you matter. God wants you in His family. He won’t give up searching for you. And for those already in the family of God, the Lord seeks the lost coin through you and me. He constantly seeks sinners through the people of God and through the Church.

The Lord is merciful and loving and He places a high value on us, not wishing that any of His kids get lost forever. He loves us with a love that's hard to understand. God paid the ultimate price to find the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost prodigal son. He gave His beloved, one and only Son, to take our place and die for us. Redemption is ours. We can be found!

My prayer is, by God’s grace, that we partner with Him to be that woman who searched and found the diamond in her ring and to be that woman who searched and found her coin. May we become so compassionate towards all those who are lost in this world, that we may find grace to keep our eyes and hearts wide open to find them and bring them home.

Here is That Rainbow I've Been Praying For

Yesterday I was listening to the downpour of rain. I knew the outdoor event I was attending would be postponed. But, we had seen the forecast, so it was already planned that the event would resume later in the day when the rain was gone. I thought about this old song:
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day

Oh yes I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright, bright sun-shining day

Don’t those words express how we feel when, at last, the verdict comes out in our favor? Or, when the medical procedure or test reveals no disease? Or the baby is delivered after many hours of labor? Or the final exam grades were good enough to pass or even to earn a scholarship? Or any other test or trial that we go through that seems to have no end, but THEN, the bright, sun-shining day makes its way through to us.

Now, we’re singing a song of rejoicing because the obstacles that seemed insurmountable, the dark clouds, the pain, and the rain, are gone. All along God was there and we see the results of the work He has been doing in our lives. Oh, happy day! When we are going through difficult times, it is hard to see God’s Master Plan at work and, for goodness sake, we wonder what benefit could He possibly have in mind in the midst of our trials. The wait. Oh, the patience we must have during the wait. Why, Lord, does it take so long? Again, we hear. “Be patient, my child, I am working all things for your good. I promise you, you will thank me later.”

The Apostle James expressed it this way: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (James 1:2-4). Count it for joy? Seriously?

In God’s grand scheme of things…..the trials and the tests make us stronger. Our spiritual and moral fiber is being strengthened. Our story will soon have silver linings and it will be one, not only for the record books, but it will be a story that glorifies God and gives testimony to others of God’s amazing grace.

So now, we carry on. We pick up our swords and our crosses and we carry them with honor to the finish line. It won’t be much longer and it will be a bright sun-shining day again. The rainbow that we’ve been praying for will soon appear. What if trials of this life -- the rain, the storms, the hardest nights, are God’s mercies in disguise?

“Weeping may last for the night, but there is a song of joy in the morning.” Psalm 30:5.

Good-Bye Past, But Thanks for the Memories!

I randomly watched the televised Garth Brooks Concert at Notre Dame last week. Impressive, massive crowd to hear him as he was literally “singing in the rain”. When he sang, “I Thank God for Unanswered Prayers”, I’ll admit I had to sit down and watch him AND the camera’s crowd highlights of couples looking into each other’s eyes, and even Garth’s eyes tearing up. I knew they were thinking “Thank God for not answering my prayers because if He had answered ‘yes’ to those prayers, no telling what my life would look like today!”

Maybe someone you really cared about broke up with you and now you look at them on Facebook and the life they’re living and you fall on your knees and thank God for NOT answering those prayers. Now you can thank God they broke your heart. Look what could have been. Look what the Lord has done. Maybe we don’t, right this minute, understand the reasons, but we can still praise God for the result.

I thought about the prayers I prayed over the years, asking God for a miracle in the midst of some of the toughest times. Good thing “His ways are so much higher than my ways” (Isaiah 55:8) because “my ways” would sure have borne some uncomfortable results. Now, looking back at 2018, we may be assessing how much we enjoyed the high points OR despising the low points.

I heard someone say that our lives our made up of highs and lows and we are the summation of all of it. The good, the bad and the ugly. They said we shouldn't judge our lives by the minute by minute experiences, because if we did that when we went to Disney World, we'd rate our experiences so low that we would never want to go back. You know, the long lines we stand in and all the heat we endure. So when we think about 2018, we shouldn’t be so quick to call it a bad year, just because we went through some hard things. There were definitely some really good things that happened, too! By faith, we should accept whatever happened as part of God’s way of choosing to not answer some of our prayers the way we thought they should be answered. It is far better for us to have a story of grace that carried us through in the midst of it all!

Maybe, you think you’re chained in a Roman prison right now (metamorphically speaking) when it comes to the “stuff” you’re dealing with and the chains that bind you and the hopelessness you feel. Right while you’re there….you can hear how the Apostle Paul handled his Roman prison when he says "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4-7) WHAT? Rejoicing while in a damp, cold prison? Yes, rejoicing that he could write to us with the example of trusting that in EVERYTHING, God is working it ALL for our good! (Romans 8:28)

Let’s say “Good-bye to 2018 and every year before that, because the highs and lows are part of God’s master plan to make us the BEST we can be for Him and for the lives of others that we get to influence! Let 2019 breeze by with absolute trust in our Father Who knows what’s best for us – the Walt Disney experiences as well as the Roman prison ones!