Have you ever had something in your hands, turned around, laid it down, and couldn’t find it for the life of you? Just the other day, I was going through a mound of papers looking for a certain paper. FOUND IT! And then lost it. I spent a huge amount of time searching for the same paper again.
I’m not alone in this struggle. There’s a fella who goes to church with me who lost something while hiking. He said that he, too, had spent countless hours trying to find his lost item. Makes me wonder if there’s an angel up in heaven whose job is to hide things from us. LOL!
God told me multiple times to stop looking for the paper and move on. I tried to. In fact, I even wrote a whole new lesson to replace the one I couldn’t find. But it wasn’t the one I wanted. I came home from school with full intentions of rewriting the lesson I had just written. But too many unplanned events happened between leaving school and bedtime. Wonder if that was another angel, one who’s in charge of untimely events? At any rate, I didn’t get to rewrite.
The next morning, as I got ready for work, I knew I couldn’t do the replacement lesson I had created the day before. In the plethora of lessons I’ve written over the years, I had another activity I could do for the day. My intentions were to go back one more time and dig through those mounds of papers again.
Then I also decided to do what my hiking friend did: ask God for help. One Sunday morning, he told us he had lost something he treasured on a recent hike. He talked about how silly some folks might think it was for him to ask for prayer to find his item, but it was important to him. I asked God that morning, before leaving for work, for help finding my paper.
Long story short! School was on a two-hour delay, and I was able to get there a little earlier. I went to the dreaded mound of papers and thought to myself, “I’m going to go slow, look carefully at piece by piece, as well as the front and the back.” The very first piece of paper I picked up and turned over was the long-lost piece I was looking for!
I said, “High-Five Jesus!” many times. Cold Chills. There were chills on my arms and tears in my eyes. Not because I finally found what I had misplaced. But I had chills because I knew the reason I had found my paper: God.
Here’s what struck me most: with all the things going on in the world right now, and I mean all over the world, He took time to hear me. He heard me ask a silly prayer about something that was upsetting me. Something that was causing me stress and anxiety. He hears me. And, He cares about me.
He hears you. And, He cares about you too.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been searching for something else. It wasn’t something I lost, though. I’ve been looking for a Bible study about Hosea and Gomer. I can find all sorts of Bible studies available right now, but I sure can’t find one about Hosea and Gomer. And, I don’t know why. It’s one of the most beautiful stories about God pursuing His people… you and me. Wondering if this will be the next book I get to write. I’ve got to get the first book published and out first. (Waiting on the book cover, and then I’ll have it available.)
Hosea is a minor prophet in the Old Testament, and his book is often cited as the first book of the Bible. After reading it, I can see why it would be labeled that.
Here’s the story: God told Hosea to take this lady named Gomer as his wife. They get married and have some children. Gomer, however, strays from her husband Hosea to chase after other lovers. A little later, Hosea finds Gomer, but now she’s a slave. Guess what Hosea does. He buys her back. He doesn’t just take her back; he actually pays money to get her back.
God told Hosea to get Gomer and bring her back home. And, He does that for us, too. We wander off, we get lost in our own choices, yet God pursues us. He searches for us like I searched for that paper—only His search is driven by infinite love, not just need.
Just as God helped me find a lost piece of paper that mattered to me, He relentlessly pursues lost people who matter infinitely more to Him. The same God who heard my small prayer about a missing lesson is the God who won’t stop searching for you, no matter how far you’ve wandered. That’s the heart of the Hosea story—and it’s the heart of our God.
Enjoy the snow, stay warm and safe!