"Have you seen my hat?" Howard asked repeatedly over the last few weeks of gusty, Oklahoma winds. I had looked high and low, but his favorite light-weight, golfer-style hat was nowhere to be found. My handsome husband resorted to borrowing my comb and smoothing his still-black hair in his reflection of a plate glass window of whatever public place we were entering.
"Why don't you use hairspray!" I suggest helpfully, but he doesn't like using it. His fine, wash-and-blow-dry hair is in disarray the minute we step out the door, and he can't stand to have a hair out of place. Oh, for the days of "Wild Root Cream Oil," or the red-colored, oily stuff favored by him and my brothers when we were teenagers!
"I'm beginning to think you left your hat somewhere," I conclude after another fruitless search. I think of the time when we had gone through this scenario a few years ago, and one day I received an e-mail from our son we had recently visited in Houston. He had attached a photo, and there stood our four-year-old granddaughter wearing Pa-Pa's hat with the caption, "Did you forget something?" No wonder I couldn't find it! It was 500 miles away!
More recently, some friends from Mississippi where we used to live were passing through town on the way to Kansas. We hadn't seen them in five or six years, so when they called and suggested we meet them at a local restaurant, we were thrilled. I recognized the couple immediately through the restaurant window when I saw the man in his signature golfer's hat. The first thing I said was, "Howard used to have a hat like that!" about the same time our friend said to my husband, "Here's your hat you left at our house five years ago!"
Monday night at the conclusion of our Bible study at the home of friends when one of the men got up to leave, I heard him say to the hostess, "I didn't leave my hat here last week, did I? I can't find it anywhere!" to which she replied, "No, the only one here is Howard's hat he left a couple of weeks ago."
My ears perked up! Unaware that Howard was engrossed in a private prayer with the leader, I exclaimed from across the room, "Howard, they found your hat!" He didn't hear me, but a mental picture flashed through my mind of my having him hang his hat on their hall tree when we came in last time we were there.
You would have thought it was Christmas morning by the look of glad surprise on Howard's face when he looked up. "My hat!" he blurted, "You found my hat!"
Jesus talks about the joy of the lost being found in several Bible stories. The woman who had lost a coin swept her house clean until she found it, when she was so glad she had to go tell all her neighbors. The shepherd with the lost sheep left the ninety-and-nine to search for and find the missing one he loved so dearly. The prodigal son was lost in sin, but the joy his father felt when he returned knew no bounds. Jesus said the angels in heaven rejoice for a lost sinner who repents.
Jesus is concerned about our lost items and what concerns us, but mostly, He is concerned that we make heaven, where our joy will be complete!
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