Found!

Many times I am struck at what a good teacher Jesus was. His testament came to us in ways not only that we needed, but ways that we could all understand on a very palpable fundamental level. Recent events have led to me to recall the parable of the lost coin. My Sunday School lessons are kind of shadowy in my mind right now, but if I recall correctly that was the parable in which Jesus likens the joy of the Lord at having a prodigal return to His truth as that of a bride (or soon to be bride) who finds, after a lot of effort, the missing coin for her bridal head-dress. As a tangent, I only now realise that I am recalling this story for people who already know more about the Bible, Jesus and Christian theology as a whole more than I do, so how very embarrassing. If I have butchered this, you can crucify me later.

Anyway. I thought about Jesus' ability to express and share God's comfort in this way for a long time throughout all of last week. You see, something very dear to me - very dear period, in fact - was missing. For the past week I had searched in vain for my IPod. On the day I first discovered it missing, I had realised that even though it was a Friday, that whole weekend there was going to be something nagging at the back of my conscience. As it turned out, the weekend was a lot worse than I had anticipated, due to the fact that I had also managed to misplace my phone. See previous blog. I found my phone at the end of that weekend, but as I faced the beginning of the week with some estimated 250 miles to drive for work that coming Monday, I realised that it was going to be a terrible time without Helene. That's my IPod. You see, she has been such a comfort to me on those long drives. She is never annoying since I change things round constantly with her to ensure that our relationship is as fresh as the first time we entertained one another. She always lasts just as long as I need her to, and she totally doesn't mind if I yell and scream at her so long as I assure myself that I'm still in tune. As I spent all of the week looking and re-looking everywhere - my car, my room, my living room, the kitchen cupboards, behind the toilet, et cetera, I thought about how comforted that Bride (or bride-to-be) felt when she had found her missing coin. I was struck how, like every other record of his exploits in the Bible, Jesus knew what he was talking about. If God feels magnanimously worse about lost souls than I did about Helene, then we have a crisis in the world that we as Christians have to fix, people. Not that we do not know this already, of course. Anyway, I ramble. While I was searching all I could do was something I am sure I am not divided from others in doing when they are faced with searching for any ellusive trinket - I imagined quite vividly the moment of my finding Helene - closing my warm fingers around her cold and rubbery (the cover) exterior, caressing her dial clockwise then anti-clockwise to see if she was as happy to see me as I was to see her, and then continuing with the rest of my life which seemed at a standstill. Alas, however, for all of last week my fantasy was doomed to be simply that.

....Until this past Sunday. Providence is a mother as generously intuitive to our needs as all mothers. A friend who we all hadn't seen in a while came over for a rather spontaneously unannounced visit. This same friend also worked for the college theatre which quite fortuitously is housed where the Martin Players rehearse and will perform William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and where I had forgotten my journey had taken me that fateful Thursday night two weeks ago when I had last remembered being with Helene. Nevertheless, my friend and I got to talking and exchanging our woe-stories the way all college graduates do and while she was talking about living somewhere new with a boyfriend we as her friends know precariously little about, I cut her off with my woeode (woeful ode) to the ill-fated Helene. She then went on to talk about some "IPod thingy" that was in the lost and found bin at the theatre. Unbelievable. I actually kissed her. First time. Not on the lips though, since I promised her and her ex-boyfriend, my roommate, that as their friend they would never have to worry about that. Within minutes Helene was back with me, beaming at me with her brilliant selection of such tasteful treats as "1973" from James Blunt's new album. Oh happy day.

Fast forward to tonight (this morning) and I couldn't be more at peace. Sure life goes on as it always does but everything seems in its proper place. The latter part of the last sentence is probably as close to heaven as some believe I will get, since I haven't been to church in a while, but I can't help but feel this IPod incident has taught me a very invaluable albeit microcosmic lesson of what our Lord deals with constantly. I promise anew to not be part of that chagrin. Lord, this is one IPod you won't have to worry about. Though my battery may need recharging, I will not get lost.