Missing

BETHANY TIPPIN

We adopted two cats at the beginning of the month. They are older kittens, between three and four months old we suspect. The adventures of Orion and Leo are many these days, and began as entertaining. Slowly, however, as my house has been ransacked, I am losing my amusement. 

Items go missing, curtains are pulled down, and power cords are chewed into obliteration. Last night, as I watched, Leo climbed onto my nightstand and bit my lampshade! We’ve had large wooden signs knocked on our heads as the cats prowled the length of our headboard… One of the cats pulled book after book off a giant shelf at rapid fire. 

Well, all this compounded into a feeling of great frustration at the state of my home. I am tired of picking up after people and pets, walking into a room to find it not at all as I left it. I’m tired of the smells, extra chores, and mostly—the sense of losing things or watching them go to ruin because of these crazy creatures. It feels complicated and futile to care and so, so messy. 

Enter the Holy Spirit. 

Silly, I know, but one thing in particular was bothering me. The cats have pulled the shower curtain in the master bathroom down 3 or 4 times in the last couple of weeks. The last time, it was while my husband showered. Obviously, he put it back up in great haste. When I returned several hours later to pick up the mess, I was unable to locate one of the shower rings. It was a little thing, but it disturbed me. I grumbled internally, “We’re losing everything. It is such a mess, such a mess. The whole house is going to pot.” 

This morning, while I was taking my shower, I looked up. There, hanging freely between two secured rings, was that lost ring. “It’s not lost.” My heart rang with the hope of this reality. I laughed out loud. Then, my heart shifted to praise, for the Lord declared to me through it: 

“Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10) 

Except—I didn’t sweep and search. I tried, and gave up in the midst of cat litter, an unfinished bathtub surround, and other chaos. Just like the lost sheep (the story that comes right before this one about the coin in Luke 15), God found the missing ring. I didn’t have to do a thing. 

But then, the Spirit whispered again: You did. You kept your eyes open.   

I wish I had the right words to inspire you past your frustration, despair, or overwhelm while things around you seem to swirl and head toward ruin. But it wasn’t words that fixed me this morning, it was sight. May the Lord truly help you to see his hand on your life today, whether in the most momentous of ways or the smallest. Don’t overlook the tiny miracles that speak hope.