joy – Michele Huey

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. – Jesus, as quoted in Luke 15:10 (NIV)

I couldn’t find my hearing aid. And for once, I was about to get out the door on time. But when I reached into the black pouch where I keep the device when I’m not wearing it, it wasn’t there.

I checked all the places I could have put it down: the breakfast bar, the vanity top in the bathroom, the mirrored tray in the bedroom, the lamp table beside the love seat where I sit in the evenings. I emptied my purse. I checked the pockets of the jeans and jacket I wore Monday evening, when I’d last used it. Nothing.

Panic set in. Not only did I have a haircut appointment, but I also had half a dozen errands to run, errands that entailed talking with people.

“I can’t go without my hearing aid,” I muttered, emptying my purse for the second time. “I won’t hear anything anyone says to me today.”

Not being able to hear was only one aspect of my concern. The other was that the hearing aid would be expensive to replace. But what could I do? I’d already scoured the house. I’d just have to explain to everyone what happened, ask them to speak louder – and to pray.

When I returned home later in the afternoon, I had less than an hour before I had to leave for town again to help set up for Saturday’s Punxsutawney Christian Women’s Conference. I popped a pizza in the oven for supper, put away the groceries and searched the house again.

For some reason, all day I’d been thinking about a bag of garbage I took out to the shed on Tuesday. I had a feeling burning the garbage was on Dean’s do-list for the evening, so I lugged the bag to the back deck and began emptying it, one yucky item at a time. Only six relatively clean objects later, I found the missing hearing aid.

Hallelujah!

I brushed off hazelnut coffee grounds, rinsed the ear mold, plugged it in my ear, and turned it on. After being in the garbage bag for three days, it worked just fine! I must have put it on the breakfast bar Monday night, when I’d come home exhausted, and forgot about it. Dean came home the next day after work and dropped the mail where he usually does – on the breakfast bar, where the hearing aid lay. Apparently it got mixed in with the junk mail that I tossed in the garbage.

Everyone I met Thursday evening got the story of the lost-and-found hearing aid. I wanted to share my joy.

So it was in heaven the day I decided to follow Jesus. I, too, had been lost, buried in the trash of life and headed for the burn pile. But God removed the junk that covered me and cleaned me so I could do what I was created to do and fulfill His purpose for me.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!”

Lord, I pray there’s rejoicing in heaven right now because the lost are being found. Show me what I can do to keep the rejoicing going strong. Amen.

Read and reflect on Luke 15.

Image by shatishira from Pixabay

Image by Francesco Pitarresi from Pixabay

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. – 1 Timothy 4:7 NIV

I’d never heard of moonflowers until a friend posted a picture of hers on Facebook. “The blossoms bloom only at night,” she wrote.

Flowers that bloom only in the dark? Intrigued, I did some online research.

Moonflower vines, I learned, can grow up to 20 feet, with 4-to-6-inch white, fragrant blossoms opening in the evening until the following morning.

How like faith—genuine, real, rubber-meets-the-road faith. Faith, I’ve learned, is only faith when you can’t see. When you’re in the dark, not knowing, not in control. When you have no one else to turn to but God.

Have you ever known anyone who possesses such a faith? I did.

To say that Louise was a joyful person was an understatement. Joy bubbled out of her. I rarely saw her without her bright smile and sparkling eyes—and sense of humor. Situations that would give me permission to wallow in self-pity, she managed to find the light side. Like the time she came to church sporting a black eye, caused by the recoil from her hunting rifle. The church pianist, she sat at the keyboard on the platform, laughing as she told us the story.

Louise and her husband, Carl, once led an active, busy life, led by their love for their family, their church, and their Lord. Blessed with musical talent, they often sang together, visiting numerous churches in the area. They produced cassette tapes, offering them for a donation to cover the cost of production.

When Louise was diagnosed with cancer, Carl was chronically ill himself. Since she could no longer take care of him, he went to live in a local nursing home.

Wanting to offer back some of the comfort she’d always given me, I made a batch of chicken soup and took it to her. But she was the one who ministered to me.

“When I woke up this morning,” she said as we sat at her kitchen table, “before I even got out of bed, I lay there, just praising God.”

Louise lived the words she once sang: “You talk of faith when you’re up on the mountain. Talk comes easy when life’s at its best. But it’s down in the valley of trials and temptations, that’s when faith is really put to the test. The God on the mountain is still God in the valley. When things go wrong, He’ll make it right. And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God in the night.”*

Shortly before she passed away, a month before Carl, I saw some pictures of Louise on Facebook. Her thin frame and head turban told of the battle she waged. But her bright eyes and smile that lit up her whole face told another story—a story of a moonflower faith, its beauty opening to the dark, exuding an unforgettable fragrance into the world around it.

O God, may my faith, too, be a moonflower faith. Amen.

Read and reflect on Hebrews 11.

*From the song, “God on the Mountain” by Tracy Dartt.

Michele Huey

Tag: joy

The Lost Hearing Aid

Moonflower Faith

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