What Are You Doing with Jesus?

Flower of the Family shared a post that brought this situation back to my memory...

Christmas 2006

My in-laws gave us a $300 Sears gift card to buy whatever we wanted for Christmas. We were thrilled. My husband loses things easily, so he asked me to keep the gift card. I'm a thrifty person and I try to use things as long as I can and maybe a tad bit longer. Well my wallet was falling apart, so I put the gift card in the front pocket of my jeans for safe keeping. I was traveling sick (antibiotics that didn't agree with me) and we had to stop 3 times with one time in the dark and rain. We woke up the youngest to go to the bathroom and as he got out of the car he stepped into a 6" pot hole full of rain water. It was so cold and the wind was blowing the rain. When we got home we unloaded the car and let the kids unwrap their gifts from my family and then went to bed.

Fast forward to January 10th

My husband asked me for the Sears Gift Card because he wanted to buy something with it and I realized that I had no idea where it was - aughh. They told us NOT to lose it because they bought it with cash and of course the receipt was with it. I was SICK! I could have lost it at any of our stops and I wouldn't have noticed it, especially the wind, rain, and crying stop. I spent the week praying I would find the card to no avail. We prayed that it would turn up, but were afraid that it probably wouldn't because I had no recollection of the gift card after stuffing it into my jeans pocket. I was so upset with myself because I'm supposed to be the responsible one...

Back then I wrote, I'm hoping that I can just rest in God's peace since there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to change what is done, but I have been beating myself up something awful. I'm hoping that it will turn up when we least expect it... I've been praying that God would teach me something through this yucky experience beyond the "Be careful with gift cards..." speech.

My friend, Karen helped to turn my mind with one of her emails. God spoke to me and asked me what I'm doing with the biggest and best gift I've ever received? My salvation and the gift of HIS Son Jesus Christ. I'm always concerned with being a good steward of money/gift cards, etc... and using coupons and getting the best price... But when you get right down to it - you don't take any of that with you when you die... You either have Jesus or you don't and then the question is what did you do with Jesus? Did you say thanks and stick Him in a closet or did you commune with HIM constantly? Did you ask what do YOU think, Jesus before doing anything? Did you seek HIM and HIS will? So if I had to lose $300 to get me thinking, then it was worth it...

Shortly after realizing the gift card was missing, I rushed out to the store and bought a wallet for $9.88. So now, I have my wallet worth $309.88 - for that price it better last 200 years (haha). In all seriousness, I hope the lessons learned here have eternal value beyond anything money could buy.

May 7, 2007

I'm so excited! The other day, my four year son got some books down from the bookshelf and messed it up a bit, so I decided I needed to straighten it up... I noticed a pack of batteries that didn't belong and a couple receipts and a little red piece of cardboard... Guess what I found? You're right - the $300 SEARS gift card. I immediately called my in-laws and shared the good news. They were overjoyed and as you can imagine so was I.

The Parable of the Lost Coin
"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not 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