Lost and FOUND

The Prodigal Suitcase

Remember the little orange suitcase I thought was possibly in a number of people's houses or cars over summer?

It turns out I forgot to ever take it out of my flat. Oops.

Trinh found it and nicely placed it at the end of the corridoor innocently thinking that it would still be there when I returned this year. (Student village policy states that everything left in the flats get TRASHED.)

I went to the student village office today and I asked Anthony if there was a lost and found.

Willy asked: "When did you lose it?".

Me (hesitatingly, sort of already knowing their answer): "At the end of last year?".

Willy said with a smile: "We trash EVERYTHING over summer!"

Anthony: "What was it anyway?".

Me: "It was this little suitcase...about this size...(pointing to below my knees)"

Anthony cut in suddenly (like a lightbulb went off in his head): "Was it yellow?".

Me (with hope revived): "It was orange!"

After which Anthony proceeded to show me MY suitcase sitting in the next room.

Hooray! Praise the Lord! I FOUND my suitcase! The one I thought I would never see again!

Afterthought: I was initially trying to look for it quite hard because I knew something of MINE was missing. It got me restless. I couldn't really get down to unpacking knowing it was still lost. Actually after many dead ends I had actually resigned myself to the fact that either I would never find it, it got stolen or thrown away. There wasn't even anything important in it as far as I recalled, or possibly just a few daggy clothes (there actually WERE just a few daggy clothes). But the JOY I felt finding it was so great! Even though it was just a cheap trolley bag with daggy clothes.

I was wondering, if I could feel so much happiness from something not really that significant of mine returning to me, how much MORE happy would God feel having His creation that he dearly loves, return to Him on their own accord. = )