The Biggest Loser

I am a loser.

I don’t say that for sympathy or encouragement. It’s just simply true. I lose school notes. I lose jewelry. I lose my keys, my cell phone, occasionally my purse.

Earlier this week, I lost my checkbook. I had it out to pay our tax bill. It was in my office, on my desk. And then, it wasn’t.

I’m lucky to be married to a finder. Even before we married, my soon-to-be-husband got a glimpse of what life with a loser would be like. Something I needed was in one of the boxes we had moved from my temporary home in Birmingham. He went through box after box until he found what it was I had lost.

Not much has changed. I still lose things. He still finds things. Only now, he is dad to two little losers who take after their mother.

To be sure, losing is an attention problem. A problem of not focusing, of not putting things back where they go, of being disorganized and having so much stuff that what is most important is not easily seen.

After searching all morning for the checkbook, I finally gave up. I told God that he would have to lead me to it because I had looked everywhere. Let’s just say it’s not the first time I’ve prayed that prayer.

Guess what? Within 10 minutes, my checkbook was in my hands. I was straightening up from my “looking” and there it was. In my office. Right where I thought it might be.

With gratitude, I shake my head in wonder that God cares about me enough to move me in the right direction, in the small details like lost things and in the major decisions that come up now and then.

I wish I didn’t spend so much time looking for things. I really wish I could get more organized, which would solve much of my losing problem.

But every search reminds me that I belong to a loving Father, a God who pursues those who are lost and rejoices when they are found. I am a loser, but God is a finder! Through His amazing grace, I, who once was lost, now am found.  

​God cares about me. He cares about you. His desire is for everyone to be found. That’s the good news of Jesus. And on this #ThankfulThursday, I am grateful indeed.