The Missing Shoe

I didn’t get to ask anyone about adobes, but I did have a great time.  As the evening wore on, we transported people back to the parking lot to hop in their warm cars and putter on home.  Did I mention how cold it was outside last night?  Well, it was.  One such family got off of the tram with their little girl who looked to be about 12 months or so.  As they got off, I noticed their daughter was missing her shoe.  They explained they looked everywhere and couldn’t find it.  It was lost.

I was immediately disturbed.  You see, I can not STAND to lose something.  For someone who thrives on organization, losing something is comparable to a one-legged chicken doing the two-step – it just can’t happen.  It became my mission to find that shoe.

I told them I would keep an eye out and ask the other bus drivers.  I offered to call when I found it, but the mother said she would call the church office the next morning.  As they walked off to get in their car, another lady boarded the bus.  She asked if they were missing a shoe.  “I was on the bus where they found a shoe,” she said.  She told me she would point out the woman who had the shoe when we got back to the entrance of Christmas on the Corner.  I ran to the family whose baby now had one cold foot and asked them to wait.  “I’ll bring your shoe when the shuttle swings back around.”

The search began.  We arrived at the entrance to learn that the lady with the shoe wasn’t around.  “Check lost and found,” I was told.  I sent my driver on without me and told him I’d catch up on his next round.  I was sure this couple checked the lost and found, but I headed that way nevertheless.  

“No shoe, here.”

“Wait! Are you looking for a little girl’s shoe?” An old friend, who just happened to be sitting in the lost and found tent, overheard my inquisitions.  “I’m the one who found it.  I gave it to a lady with blond hair on the red bus.”

My options were narrowing.  I was going to find that shoe.  As I glanced up, background music (mission impossible) started in my head as I made direct eye contact with a red bus.  The bus began to pull away.  I ran to catch it and knocked on the doors.  “Have you seen a little girl’s – ” I was cut off as the blond bus hostess turned to hand me none other than the afore mentioned lost foot apparel.  Yes!

I didn’t want to wait on the tram to come back for me. I thought of the poor little cold foot and the tired mommy and daddy waiting, and I broke into a sprint.  (I knew my running shoes would come in handy that night.) I was gasping for air by the time I got back to the car where the family was waiting.  They were extremely grateful.  I found out they didn’t have a church and invited them to come back Sunday.  The nodded and said they definitely were interested in visiting.  

My tram pulled up next to me, so I bid them adieu.  Mission accomplished.  Lost shoe found.  

Then next morning, I was thinking about all I went through to find that shoe and why.  I wanted that family to have a good impression of our church, but most of all a good impression of our Jesus.  And I just can’t stand lost things.

As I was thinking, God, as He loves to do, began speaking to my heart.  

You know, Carol, I am always looking for lost things.  Even though my children outnumber the stars, I will go out of my way to find a lost one.  Remember the stories in the Bible of the lost sheep? (I interjected here – Lord, you KNOW I love me some sheep, so I know all of the sheep stories in the Bible.)  What would you have done if you hadn’t found the shoe?  You would have kept looking for a while.  But at the end of the night, you would have gone on home.  Not me.  I never stop looking when one of my little lambs is lost.  Remember that.

Oh, friends.  How thankful I am that He never gives up on the lost lambs.  “I once was lost, but now I’m found.”  Are you feeling like that lost shoe?  Someone is looking for you and won’t stop until they find you.  It’s your Heavenly Father.  

Thank you Lord for never giving up.

Carol