"Lost and Found"

Our Sunday School teacher’s son, Steven, lost his hamster recently.  The family prayed and looked for the hamster all day until finally at eleven o’clock at night, they offered one more prayer.  With flashlight in hand, Steven’s dad went downstairs for one more hopeful attempt at locating the beloved hamster.  There it was - hiding under the stairs!  Steven told his dad that now he knew Heavenly Father answers prayers.  And at that moment Steven’s uncle called to see if the hamster had been found.  The relieved uncle shared his testimony with Steven – Heavenly Father hears us when we pray and is anxious to send answers and bless us.  The Uncle recalled a story from his own boyhood when he prayed and Heavenly Father helped him find his baseball mitt.

As our Sunday School teacher shared this lost and found experience, I remembered when my younger brother lost his retainer.  He must have taken it out while eating or brushing his teeth and forgot to put it back in.  We couldn’t afford a new one.  Finding it was crucial.  So my mom knelt in prayer, pleading for Heaven’s help.  Concluding her prayer, as she began to stand, she felt something under her knee.  You know what happened next…she looked and it was my brother’s retainer. 

I bet you and everyone you know has had an experience like Steven, or his uncle or my mom.  Everyone has lost something – their car keys, a shoe, an earring.  It is amazing what a high success rate there is in finding what has been lost when Heavenly Father is invited to get involved. 

Steven gained a testimony that Heavenly Father helps us find the things we lose.  As a boy, Steven’s uncle received that same testimony.  Now they both know they can ask God for help and God will care enough to respond.  I know it too. 

In His wisdom, Heavenly Father starts with helping us find the small things – car keys, hamsters, wedding rings, baseball gloves – so that we will believe and trust that He will help us find the big things we sometimes lose – faith, confidence, hope, peace, our way…

We don’t mean to.  We don’t intend to lose hope or start the day thinking, “I am going to lose a little faith today.”  But sometimes it happens.  A difficult trial, a heart-breaking experience, hurt, anger, exhaustion – any number of things can shake our faith, for instance, or even cause us to lose it.

But Heavenly Father knows how to help us find those things.  He knows how much we want and need them back.  He knows how long we search and where we should go.  Somehow it seemed perfectly natural to ask for His help when we have lost our proverbial hamsters.  In fact, it was probably our first response.  We looked for a minute or two, but knew the best thing we could do was ask God.  Get his help.  He would know where it was hiding and how to find it again. 

I can’t see much difference when we lose something a little bigger – a little more important to us.  Asking for God’s help should be our first response.  Get His help.  He knows how to restore what has been lost.  And sure enough, what once was lost is always found.