The couch that ate my phone....

I'm beginning to think this is the week of having to find lost items. First it was that pesky onion that was smelling up the kitchen. This time, I had to find my phone. I knew it was here somewhere, but I couldn't seem to find it. I could hear that occasional "beep" that let me know I either had a message or my battery was low. I could hear it...but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't SEE it.

Finally, I got my son's phone and called my number. I could hear ringing coming from inside the couch! At first I was relieved...all I had to do was lift the cushions and retrieve my phone, at least that's all I thought I'd have to do. I lifted the cushions and absolutely nothing was there. I called again, and this time I could hear the ringing coming from deep inside the couch. My phone had somehow slipped INTO the couch.

I searched and searched for some small opening that would allow me to reach my phone, but there was none to be found. To make a long story short, after about an hour of digging through crumbs and hair barrettes and practically deconstructing one end of the couch, I found my phone! That's not all, I found my daughter's phone too....the one she lost two years ago. Yes, I did say two years ago.

I remember the night she lost that phone. We had gone to a big concert at the "Cow Palace" here in town and that was the last we remember seeing it. I thought she'd dropped it on the way back to the van that night. We got a refurbished one to replace her phone, but it definitely wasn't the same. She was so discouraged when she lost that phone and so excited when I found it today! It was like Christmas all over again.

I have to wonder how many other things I have lost that are right there, under our noses...or our rear ends as the case may be. What things in my life are "missing" that I don't even know are gone? This whole incident has gotten one of those songs stuck in my head too: "...You don't know what you've got till it's gone. They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot." The thing is, I knew it was gone, and I'd long ago given up on ever finding that phone. After a while, I just gave up and forgot about it.

I'm really glad God isn't as "forgetful" as me. He never gives up on us. He never leaves us or forsakes us...or loses us. He knows right where we are. He knows the plans he has for us. Even though we may feel like we're lost in the proverbial couch cushions of life, He hasn't forgotten us. "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." That's good news for those who sometimes feel like the world has passed them by...or worse, sat on their dreams. Those dreams aren't lost forever....they're just hidden away, waiting to be rediscovered.

The good news is that the phone is working fine now...my daughter is extremely happy, my son got her other phone so he's happy, and me...well, I'm on my way to work on that couch. Who knows what treasures I might find.