Don’t you just think that losing your car keys, or losing anything is just the most frustrating thing in the world. You walk into the house, you put them down and…. they’re gone! Who does it? Who touches them? Where do they go? What about the TV remote? It was there one minute and now it has vanished from the face of the planet and just when your favourite programme is beginning on the other channel. What is going on? Why does it happen?

I can never find anything. I went to get a pair of pliers the other day. I know they are in my tool box. I don’t have that many tools - not many pairs of pliers. Were they there waiting for me, speaking to me, lovingly calling my name? No, they had gone, and boy, was I mad – it is sooo frustrating!! I am then trying to do the job with the wrong tool and giving myself a life threatening injury as a result (not really but you would have thought so at the time – much repenting required!)

Jesus understands. He told a story of a woman who lost a coin. In Luke ch 15 v8 it says, "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?” Jesus tells us that just as she rejoiced and celebrated the find with her friends - and we do feel so much better when we find things - so heaven rejoices when people like you and me turn to our loving Father and are ‘found’ by Him.

On the 30^th December 2009 Peter Moore was released from hostage captivity after two years. There was much rejoicing by friends and family on his freedom. It was like someone who was ‘lost’ being ‘found’.

One of the strange things in the Bible is that we are to ‘seek’ God although obviously He is not lost. Our relationship with Him can so easily wane and that which was crystal clear one moment seems fog bound the next. What does it mean ‘to seek God’? In 2 Chronicles ch 15 in v 1-2 it says, The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. And in v12 it says, They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.

When we seek the Lord there is a terrific promise - we will find Him. Maybe, just maybe the truth is that God is there for all. But for those who stop, take time and search out the ways that He takes there is a rich, exciting and rewarding friendship with God that surpasses all things.