God's Lost and Found Department

"We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and he is alive again; he was lost and is found."
Luke 15:32

On our table as a catch-all is a souvenir plate from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It belonged to my mother; she gave it to me. As I looked at it the other day, I wondered why my mom bought it because it depicts Jenny Lake, the location where I became lost in the woods when I was eight years old. Wouldn't the plate remind her of sad memories? Maybe.

But, then I recalled our tearful reunion that I can still picture freshly in my mind, although it happened 44 years ago. My mom was crying in the back seat of our family sedan when I approached her. I fell into her arms, never having been so happy and relieved! Covering me with fervent kisses, she clung to me in pure love.

Maybe that's why she bought the plate, and now passed it on to me, as a remembrance of our restoration.  The cross represents this same restorative love. As a sinner, I was lost, kept from the presence of the Holy God. Jesus, my redeemer, was the only one who could restore me to a right relationship with the Father.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see."

Jenny Lake may have been a place of heartbreak and pain for our family, but we also remember it as a place of joy, answered prayers, tearful reunion. In the same way, the cross was a lonely, bitter place of mockery and suffering for our Lord, but it became a place of joy, where the lost are found and the blind see.