Fortunately, my buddy Reid and his wife were willing to give us a ride home so we could fetch the spare key and return in my truck to get Sherry's car. We headed out and instead of turning north toward our home, Reid passed the turn and continued south. He has been to our house several times so I knew he wasn't lost, hmm what could this mean? Our keys lost, Reid is lost - my sanity is...oh wait that went years ago. Sherry and I looked at each other and I said "Reid, I don't think this is the right way". He replied that it was a shortcut.
Now, I know shortcuts. A shortcut may take a little compassionate (that's a play on words, get it - turning 'compass' into an adjective) detour where you are going for example east, you may go a bit south east, or a bit north east, but you still are generally going east. Well, we were going dead south - and our home was dead north. Turns out that Reid assumed we were going to the reception, and we assumed he was taking us directly home so we could retrieve the spare keys.
I was reminded of an incident that happened while Sherry and I were dating. We had gone grocery shopping one night, went to her house and fixed a nice dinner, and then I left for home. The next day she paged me in a panic - she could not find her keys anywhere. She had torn her home upside down, looked in all the usual and unusual places, nothing. We had taken her car, and she wondered if somehow I had driven off with her keys. Ha! As if I would be so stupid. Of course not I replied. She got a ride to work and later in the day as I worked the scenario over in my mind I realized that indeed I DID HAVE HER KEYS! I had put them in my coat pocket.
Well, all of this got me to thinking about the story about the lost coin in Luke 15. Here something comes up missing, and great effort is expended until the lost object is found. The story of course is an illustration of God's love for all of us - and the effort and expense he initiates on our behalf. I love that picture, because when I was lost - God came looking for me. Well, of course we eventually found the car keys and had a happy ending.
The Rest of the Story
By the way, back to the dating experience and my pirating of Sherry's keys - rather than doing the smart thing and calling her with the good news, I thought I would be really clever and surprise her by driving her car to her. I got a ride from a pal to her house, picked up her car and drove to her office - only to find that she had left early and got a ride home. Now we switch to Sherry's view - her keys were missing, she had to leave her house unlocked, she comes home early, and now her car has been stolen! Enter boyfriend Dave, driving HER car into HER driveway where SHE is madder than a Democrat alleging a stolen election! All I can say is that due to forgiveness (and a dozen of the most beautiful roses you've ever seen) we're still laughing about that day!
