The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
-Buechner

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Stealing Nothing Valuable

Did you hear the story of the Girl and her Bag?

She went to Missions Fest with a bunch of her peers last week. She left her bag under the Qwanoes booth, in a room filled mainly with hundreds of Christians and Christian Organizations. Contents of the bag included a wallet with ID, a bank card, some cash, and some sentimental items. Also included in the bag was a Nikon SLR camera. You know, an expensive one - as if there's any other kind.

She went off to explore, enjoy fellowship and comeraderie with her cohort.

The bag was not there upon her return. It had been stolen.

A day or two later, the bag showed up. It had been mailed to her. (Address was found in the contents of the wallet, in the bag.) The camera was gone. There was no longer any cash in the wallet. Instead, the bag contained a note...written by the one who stole the bag...paraphrased, it stated this:

...the camera had been sold and the cash taken. Both were used for Drug Money. Nothing else was missing.

And the look on said-girl's face when she found out that her bag with it's "important" contents had been mailed back was priceless.

Items upon which the world places great value & dollar-sign-price-tags were truly of no worth to her, compared to memories. And, compared to that which she treasures the camera was a fleeting thought. Not even a concern or worth the worry...she only wanted what was irreplaceable.

I've never heard of anything like this. I wonder what it is like to be so down and out but to have such a Great Conscience. Truly, the thief's world is collapsing but he/she holds fast to the pricelessness of memories and sentiment. Knowing that life holds more than just drugs and homelessness, yet shackled by the disease and spiral of uncontrol.

I truly believe the hand of the Maker was in this. This is proof that He seeks those who others do not want to be around. He longs for a relationship with the troubled. He wants nothing more than to befriend the homeless, the lost...they are all his children.

I'm not sure if you know this, but...

...My God Moves Mountains...

...And that gives me faith in great things to come...

1 comment:

Sarah said...

completely not related to your post...... but nice to see another island family! Hubby and I and twins from Ethiopia currently live in Richmond but are planning the big move across the water to Nanaimo. Would love to meet with you when we come to visit. sarahsilver(at)gmail(dot)com