The Hearing Aid Revelation

“Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin I had lost.” – Luke 15:9

Either she had eaten it, which seemed ridiculous, or she had sailed it across the room with a flick of a curious paw.

“It” was my recently acquired left hearing aid, which I quite liked and which was, besides that, plenty expensive. The “she” was our cat, George.

Down on my hands and knees, I peered over every inch of the wood floor. I overturned cushions, moved chairs, upended the couch. Could she really have eaten a hearing aid? I pried open her mouth searching for telltale plastic parts.

I had given up. All the hassle and expense of replacing it loomed. Then something said, “Under the rug.” I Iifted the corner of the rug and there it was, no worse for wear, even the tiny battery still in place. I rejoiced, yes I did.

And I pondered this odd experience of finding what was lost. There was no finding it when I was all agitation, looking anxiously, frantically. When I gave up, sort of surrendered, then a word, as it were, came to me: “Look under the rug.” And there it was. It felt less like “I found it” (though I did say exactly those words to my wife), than that it had been revealed to me.

This being a daily devotion, you know something about God is coming, right? Okay, here it is: my experience of God is almost never that of “finding” God, no matter how anxiously I search, no matter how many books I consult. It is almost always that God finds me, surprises me in some weird way, was there all along, and then winks, as if to say, “gotcha.”

There is a God, (insert your name here), and it’s not you.

Prayer

For everyday reminders, ordinary intrusions of grace, and all the surprises that make me say, “Oh yeah, now I get it,” thank you. Amen.

ddrobinson1111.jpgAbout the Author
Tony Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher, and writer. His newest book is Called to Lead: Paul’s Letters to Timothy for a New Day. You can read Tony’s “Weekly Meditation” and “What’s Tony Thinking?” at his website, www.anthonybrobinson.com.