I Once Was Lost, but Now Am Found

Theodore has a toy dog named, very imaginatively, Doggy.

Doggy comes everywhere with him. The store, the car, preschool, bed, even the bath if we are not quick enough to stop him.

His little brother Jesse has one too, a squirrel named, of course, Squirrel, because apparently that is just how we name things in our house.

One thing about Doggy: he has seen better days...

I looked back at some old photos recently and could barely recognize him. He has been sewn back together more times than I can count. He has been through the wash so often that his fur has completely lost its fluff. His little black eyes have been scratched almost white.

He does not look like the dog we first brought home. He looks loved. Loved nearly to pieces.

Then a few weeks ago, the unthinkable happened. We had spent the afternoon at a garden center, and we did not realize Doggy was missing until we were home and climbing into bed.

"Where's Doggy?" And then again, louder. Theo was beside himself. He woke up crying in the night, more than once, asking for a scruffy little dog we could not produce.

Thankfully, the garden center had found him. So first thing the next morning we made the drive back to collect him. Forty minutes drive each way....

The reunion might have been one of the happiest moments of Theo's little life. He held that dog like he had been handed the whole world back.

It reminded me of the story Jesus tells in Luke 15, and of how the father must have felt. A dad who had watched the road every day for a son who had walked out on him.

When the boy finally appeared, still a long way off, the father did not stop to weigh up whether he was worth it.

He runs to him. He throws a party. "For this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." Then, Jesus says, they began to celebrate.

So if you are feeling a little like Doggy today, worn down, patched up, not the shiny version you used to be, far from who you once were, hear this:

You are not too far gone to be found, and you are not too battered to be loved. The wear does not lower your worth to God. You are sought after.

And when you are found, heaven does not sigh with relief. Heaven celebrates.