Cows and coming home

When I first learned to drive I had a horrendous sense of direction.

Hi friends.

Happy Saturday.

The dishes are caught-up for the next ten minutes, the "Sunday Sauce" is in the crockpot...

Wait, does everyone know what Sunday Sauce is exactly?

It's pasta sauce, but it's so much more than that.

It's "Sunday sauce."

It's chock full of meatballs, Italian sausage AND a pork chop.

Or three.

All golden browned and tossed in with a "titch" of the pan drippings.

Wait, does everyone know what "titch" is?

My freshman year a roomate taught me what a "titch" was and I never looked back.

Anyway, Sunday Sauce is on and in attempt to stay faithful on this space I sit and write at home while home simmers for a while.

As the third child of four drivers in my family I would have won the "Most likely to get lost" award in the family.

And after I drove STRAIGHT THROUGH the neighbors mailbox I'm amazed that my parents even let me get behind the wheel of their vehicles.

My sister and I just got laughing over the "mailbox story" this week and how I desperately tried to make it right with those neighbors who were out of town for some reason when it happened.

I left notes that the rain swept away, called every other day but there was no answering machine back in the olden days, and left the splinters of the mailbox in precise order on the lawn just in case they wanted to try to hot glue them together again.

All of this to no avail until a few weeks later when a delightful RUBBERMAID mailbox was erected in its place and all was right again with the world.

47 year old me (almost 48.... cough, cough, birthday month...) wonders what on earth I said in those heartfelt notes of apology.

Did I offer my firstborn or anything?

And what on earth happened to their mail?

Like licks on the tootsie roll tootsie pop- the world may never know.

I do "nod" to it every once in a while when visit my folks, just as penance.

So driving has never been my strong suit.

One afternoon in high school while driving in the Astro van I was headed home from something or other and just kept getting more and more lost.

Wait, does anyone even remember Astro vans?

Okay I'll stop asking questions, but it does make the story sadder.

I'm the "take a left when you reach the Taco Bell and keep driving until you get to McDonalds," kinda gal.

I've never really had much use for street names or highway signs.

Point me in the direction of a double cheeseburger and now we're getting somewhere.

So on this trip home on the freeway, I was passing a lot of fast food restaurants with no familiarity in sight.

THAT was when panic set in.

The gas tank was dwindling and with no cell phone to use to find directions or call home I was just about beside myself.

Finally out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pay phone on the side of the freeway.

Kind of like the ones Super man used except this one was nailed to a telephone poll.

How ironic.

I had to call collect and realize that for many reading this, this is something you have never done.

These were hard horse and buggy days I tell you.

And sometimes Astro vans.

When my Mom accepted the call I burst into tears telling her that I had no idea how to get home. I then wondered how much this call was costing her and if she would just kill me once I GOT home.

She, cool and collected, asked me to describe what I saw around me to help her get an understanding of how far I had driven out of the way.

It makes me laugh now, but it sure wasn't a laughing matter back then when I peeked around the payphone and answered,

"COWS! ALL I SEE ARE COWS MOM!"

Now we lived in a suburb but we weren't THAT far from farm country.

Cows were surprising but definitely not impossible.

I don't remember how she steered me (see what I did there...) and the Astro van home OR how I had enough gas to get there but I wouldn't put it past a guardian Angel to huff and puff into a gas tank.

And this story of getting lost came to mind when I read again the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

The Pharisees and Scribes- the people who were supposed to know everything- the perfectionists- were muttering under their breath and not enjoying the time with Jesus.

But others join them and it becomes quite a gathering.

"And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." Luke 15:3-7

I know that this passage is preached and taught regarding coming to Christ in salvation and rescuing us from sin, and rightly so.

Salvation brings us into a relationship with the one who will never stop searching for us when we've taken a wrong turn.

And being 47 and three-quarters doesn't mean that I always know where I am going or don't feel stranded and alone.

Sometimes life can beat at us, stress tears our souls some and fear comes knocking for another unwanted long weekend stay.

I know I'm not the only one who loses car keys, phones, airpods, courage and heaps of joy.

Sometimes we don't even know how we lost contentment, peace and the freedom to be exactly who God made us to be,

But it sure isn't as easy to find with a click of a button or between the front seats with. the shriveled french fries.

There's no app called, "Find my confidence."

We can lose all kinds of things even though we know our way around our Bibles like the dollar menu.

And the thing that made me sit and write to you all today was verse 5: "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing."

I don't know where you feel lost today.

Maybe staring down the To-do list,

The mound of laundry,

or sitting in the car pool line,

sitting in the same church pew you've sat in for decades,

or with the family at devotion time trying to catch the excitement leading up to the resurrection.

What part of your heart has left the group?

Joy is a really great "pointer" like an "X marks the spot" on a treasure map, letting you know where joy has been missing.

A part of you that needs to come back "home" with Jesus.

I love the position of the sheep.

"on his shoulders"

Whatever's going on in life, it's more important to Jesus that you are with him.

Not walking beside, not walking behind,

Not even walking at all.

This sheep in it's crisis does absolutely nothing to warrant help and comfort and least of all rejoicing.

But that doesn't stop the soul-seeking love of the Lord.

Jesus tells the scoffers, the know-it-all's that he loves the lost.

The 99 may have seemed like they had it all-together.

They may have had a wonderful time as a group.

But that doesn't mean that one was still lost in the mix, turned away and by themselves.

Jesus had 99 others with him, enjoying his presence and filled with joy,

but that wasn't enough for him.

In a bible study I also gleaned,

"Jesus is still seeking those who feel lost, imperfect and struggling.

God's love is not based on performance but on his desire to be with us.

He also doesn't shame the sheep for wandering but goes after it.

When we feel lost God comes towards us not away from us.

The rejoicing the Lord has is because of us belonging to him."

Jesus wants all of the family together and us close beside him.

These thoughts sure comforted me today and I know they will encourage you as well.

Whether you see cows or not.