Missing Pieces Box

Growing up my brothers and I tended to loose pieces to games, puzzles, and other nic-nacs. So when we wanted to play a board game such as monopoly it never ceased to fail that one of the houses would be missing, the dice would be missing, or something else that you needed to play the game would not be there.  So my mom made what we called the "Missing Pieces Box" so that when we would find that lost piece we would have a place to put the pieces.

While cleaning out our game closet a while back, I happened upon that missing pieces box. I opened it up and rummaging through it I found a piece to the game trouble, a lego, a piece to a Dr. Seuss game, puzzle pieces to puzzles I forgot we even had, and there was an array of other things in the box.  As I was sifting through the box I was trying to figure out what pieces went to what game. There were so many pieces that it became overwhelming to figure out what was what! I had to close the lid and put the box back for a later date.

Sifting through all those missing pieces made me think of the story in Luke 15 where the woman lost her coin and she searched and searched and searched for that one lost coin and when she found it she rejoiced because she found her one lost coin.  Or the other story in Luke 15 about the lost son who wanted his inheritance now and then when it was gone he came back home and his father rejoiced when his son came home!

That is the same kind of joy that Christ has when one of his people come back to him.  Many times in life we go off the beaten path and we decide to go our own way and decide that our way is better than His way.   Just like the woman who searched and searched for her lost coin, Christ searches for us when we are lost too.  Sometimes we don't want to be want to be found because we are happy and content buried deep in our own missing pieces box.  But because Christ loves us so much, he won't quit sifting through that missing pieces box until he finds us.

Christ us wants us to be one with him and follow him, so when we go our own way he searches for us and when we come back to him, he celebrates just like the father did in Luke 15 when his son came home.

Just like I would have been excited about finding that one missing trouble piece or that puzzle piece, Christ gets excited when one of his sheep come back to him.

Luke 15:32 " But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and  is found."