I found a £20 note today!

Hooray! I found a £20 note today.  Don't you just love it when you find money...I found £10 in my front garden once too it was so exciting.

But this £20 already belonged to me.  

I went to a spa for the day on Saturday (I know, just thought I'd drop that one in) and so as to curtail any further expenditure I just shoved £20 in my bag and left my purse at home.  By the time I'd got to the spa...which was traumatic and included a twenty minute frustrating albeit scenic detour...no sign of the money! I was gutted and all I could think was that it had fallen out of my pocket and onto the pavement awaiting some stranger to snap it up without further thought to, me- the victim.

I searched my bag at least three times, my pockets at least five, hoping that on the final time it would have magically reappeared.  In the car park I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the car and I even had a poke around the shrubbery.  When I got home it was dark so looking around the drive was going to be futile.  I checked everywhere at home, under the shoe rack, in piles of paper work where it couldn't possibly have been, in the recycling just in case baby brain was really beginning to kick in...

Then this morning I pushed back the passenger seat in my car and ta-da! There was my £20 note.  I jumped up and down and waved my hands in the air which amused the little lady no end and several passers by too. Immediately I thought of the parable of the lost coin.  And felt a little guilty..."I don't do this song and dance about the gospel every day" I thought, "I'm never this excited when I'm reminded of how much I've been saved".  But then it occurred to me to read the parable.  Here it is:

"Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' 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: 8-10

and I was relieved to realise that God reminded me of this parable in my almost identical situation to show me that the joy I experienced over finding my money is just a mere shadow of the joy that God had when he found me!

Not to make me feel guilty about how little I sometimes rejoice over him.  Although there's probably reason for a little guilt most days....

Despite that I went to work please that I'd found my money but even more pleased that God had graciously used the whole fiasco to remind me of how precious I am to him and how much joy my repentance has brought to him and his angels.

What a privilege.