The Parable of the Lost Nalgene

Apparently, I am pretty good at losing things. Maybe not everything, but definitely Nalgenes. In the last six months, I've lost two Nalgenes, and finally broke down and bought yet another replacement in August. Maybe that doesn't sound like a big deal, but I personally do not like paying $10 every time I want a decent water bottle that won't give me plastic cancer or something.

So imagine my extreme surprise and excitement when I recovered BOTH water bottles this weekend! Within two days! I felt like laughing and crying and throwing a party...because what was lost was found! What was dead was alive again! Let's kill the fatted Swiss Steak!

No, really. Why is it so exciting to find something that's been lost? I had already resigned myself to the fact (twice) that I would never see these water bottles again. But they came back to me! In my own little every-day way, I wonder if this is what God feels like when He gets His missing kids back? Missing coins, missing sheep, missing sons...I'm sure if Nalgenes had been around, Jesus might have told a story like mine.

"And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost [Nalgene].' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:9,10 (NIV)