Jesus Lost and Found

My BAR 30-06 had been broken and was still at the factory being repaired so I was using my first deer rifle, a Marlin . 35 with iron sights. 

Okay, this one stretches everybody.  By stretching I mean religious people are always offended when we pray this prayer "Little Jesus Lost and Found."  It's the word Little.  I know there is nothing little about Jesus, he created the heavens and the earth.  I know that.  But this rhymes and doesn't have anything to do with your theology, it has to do with that very same Jesus who knows where everything is and Him helping us find stuff. 

Susan heard this prayer when she was in school in Atlanta from a black woman. Her friend had lost a contact lens and this orderly came by asked what they were looking for.  She prayed "Little Jesus lost and found help us find this contact lens."  And almost instantly one of them said "here it is"!  There have been literally hundreds of things we have found, mostly by my wife.  I kid that she has a lost and found ministry.  One of the most profound was a set of my car keys.  I'm a traveling salesman so my keys are rather vital.  I misplaced them.  We searched and searched and searched and searched.  For days we searched.  I ranted and raved, turned things inside out and no keys.  Several days went by.  I was using a spare set so the urgency left and finally Susan prayed "Little Jesus lost and found, help us find Greg's keys."  Why didn't we pray as soon as they were lost?  Don't know, there is a scripture that says "Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight."  Which translates in this context to something like the quicker you ask the quicker you'll find.  I remember we were in bed, it was about 11pm.  Got up the next morning and the keys were on the kitchen counter.  Susan found them and hollered to me. "Greg, where did you find your keys?"  I hadn't found the keys.  There is no way those keys could have been in plain view for the days we were searching.  How did they get on the counter?  Simple, God put them there.  He probably used an angel. 

Praise God!

 This one is even better:

 My best friend, Mikey, heard I got "saved."  He lives in Jacksonville so he drove down to find out what happened.  In fact he drove down from Jax and then we both drove up to Homerville, Ga. to go deer hunting.  For 4-1/2 hours I told him all what Jesus had done, basically the story of "That Night" plus the Jo Nail story.  At the end he said something like.  Well, I thought it was something like that.  And dismissed the whole thing as being not necessary for him.  I was very disappointed. 

 Several years went by and occasionally I would get to share something the Lord had done in my life and his response was always similar.  "That's great Greg, but I don't need God."  My friend is in insurance and very successful so we spent a weekend at his lake place with his family and for some reason my wife got an opportunity to tell about the "Little Jesus..." prayer.  This happened several weeks later;

The family was leaving the lake place, it was getting dark, and Mikey couldn't find his keys.  The whole family was upset, everyone was looking in different places for the keys and no keys. 

Mikey tells the story; he was walking around the back of the house, the grass needed mowing and it was almost dark.  He remembered Susan's words and he prayed "Little Jesus lost and found, help me find my keys".  He said as the "S" in keys left his lips he kicked the keys in the grass with a foot.  He said he got dot down on his knees right in the grass and said Jesus I'm sorry I haven't believed you were real and gave his heart to the Lord right on the spot.

Praise God!

The deer:

I was hunting in Homerville Georgia with my friend Mikey, it was opening weekend.  My BAR 30-06 had been broken and was still at the factory being repaired so I was using my first deer rifle a Marlin . 35 with iron sights.  I was on the edge of the Swanootchee Creek up in a tree stand and Mikey was a few hundred yards away up a tree as well.  I remember it was a beautiful morning still and cool.  I heard something coming, it wasn't walking and it wasn't at a full run either.  I thought it might be a dog, actually.  It was a deer, and a nice one.  An eight point, not giant but certainly killable. 

It came almost under my tree making it a hard shot just because of its closeness.  I fired, it turned on its heals and reversed direction, I levered in another shell and fired again as it ran off.  I listened for its line of flight so I could track it and because I did a lot of archery hunting I knew the best thing to do was just to wait so if it was hit hard as I hoped, it would lie down and bleed out. 

I waited a long time, maybe an hour.  I got down and found blood right where I first shot but not very much.  I just walked in the direction I heard the deer exit and nothing.  I am color blind so following a blood trail is exceedingly difficult.  I can't do it by color at all, I have to actually see the droplets.  The terrain was very open.  This was an oak hammock, when you got on the ground all there was ground covered with leaves and what we call buck bushes.  They are tall bushes that obstruct your view when you are above a deer but on the ground they are merely bushes.  So the deer should have been very easy to find. 

 I searched and searched, nothing.  I made concentric circle patterns, I went hundreds of yards in likely directions, I searched near and far, no deer.  I was very upset.  So finally, I was about to give up and I remember being under my tree stand and praying.  This wasn't the "Little Jesus" prayer.  I remember addressing God, "Lord, if that deer is wounded, I can't let it lay out there and suffer, help me find it."  This wasn't a casual prayer I was totally engrossed in finding this deer.  I hated the possibility that I could be causing it untold suffering.  I was very upset. 

 I felt like I should make one last search.(before getting help) I walked down the trail that I had originally taken when I first got out of the tree and not 50 yards from the tree in plain view was the deer.  He was on his side and raised his head as I approached.  I dispatched him from about 15 yards away and was overwhelmed.  I mean totally blasted by what God had just done.  It was amazing.  I knew that deer wasn't within 200 yards of that tree and yet I found him about 50 yards away in plain view. 

Praise God!

There are literally scores of stories I could tell you about the Lord helping Susan and I find stuff.  Susan has found stuff she didn't even know what she was looking for.  She would come to me and say is this it and it was.  I remember helping a watch maker find a tiny screw he had dropped into a drawer full of tiny watch parts, the literal needle in a hay stack and of course we found it.  The key is Jesus Christ is real and He is looking for an opportunity to prove it.  Remember, He always is shrouded behind belief.  As you already see in yourself there exists the inclination to dismiss what I have said as just chance.  Or some weird coincidence.  But if you gulp and swallow your pride and trust God, He can give you a new life.