Sunday, October 11, 2015

Little Things

Today's Bible verse is from Luke 15:8 -
"Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
And here's my little story to go along with it ...

I have pierced ears. I've had them since I was in fourth grade. Back then, the piercing procedure (at least for me) went like this:

My mother took me to her friend the nurse's house. I sat at the dining room table (because that's where one got her ears pierced, I guess) and waited as the nurse friend prepared the surgical pack. Which consisted of a couple of Dixie cups, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and the nurse friend's favorite sewing needle. Did I mention any kind of prep for deadening the ears like drugs or even ice? Nope. I did forgot the cork, which she put behind my ear, then stuck the needle (sans thread) through the front of my ear, into the cork, which she then pulled away from my ear, thus pulling the needle through my ear. I now had a holy ear. She repeated the process on the other earlobe and put my new earrings in. Viola - I am a pierced-eared fourth grader. Oh, and did I mention that my sister and her slumber-party friends had come along for the ride and were all standing around the dining table, holding their ears and moaning?  Special times. Later, due to my saggy holes which I shall discuss next, I had my ears pierced again at Claire's, but I don't think my mother's nurse friend was working there.

Anyhow, on to my saggy holes. Apparently I have little to no decent cartilage in my earlobe. Which means that any kind of heavy earring causes the earring hole to sag and stretch. Which, after a few years, looks horrible and any kind of earrings begin to look like an old lady's saggy boobs. Which led me to ear piercing #2 at Claire's. Those holes were placed just a little beneath the first holes. Which I'm sure prevented me from getting all those modeling jobs, what with unattractive ear holes and such.

Anyhow, since then I have always tried to wear the lightest of earrings (I only have so much earlobe in which to pierce - and don't ask me about piercing the top of my ear - I have serious cartilage up there and I think I would have to be completely sedated to pierce that). I also have this problem with earrings that I tend to consistently lose one earring out of the pair. And yes, I could wear mis-matched earrings, but that requires a lot of thought and I have to answer enough questions from people about my existence, so explaining my earring choice is one less question I have to deal with. So, on to present day, where my only earring choices have been my fancy stud earrings which I don't ear a lot due to my constant losing of one. I decided to go to the neighborhood jewelry store and get the smallest pair of loops that I could get. And so I did - they are baby loop earrings. But they are small and seem to do the trick. Except they were overpriced (at least according to my cheap standards). Life was good for 24 hours, until I noticed that I had lost one. Since my activities were pretty much limited during those 24 hours, I knew the earring was probably somewhere around the house - but where? I also had washed my hair, which could only mean two things - it was stuck in the towel, or was in the shower, which meant with its size, it was probably down the drain, which needs to be cleaned out, but I can only stand so much trauma in one day, so that task was going to have to wait, should it need to be performed.

I went to the bathroom and shook out the towel - no earring. I then looked in the tub and lo and behold - there it was, sitting on the floor of the tub. It was no silver coin as mentioned above, but it was lost, and God kept it and helped me find it. As He did a few days later, when yet again the earring was missing. This time He really watched it, as I had to get down on my hands and knees to find it under the bathroom vanity.

I tell all this, not as a PSA about losing earrings and such. I tell it because for me, it's the small things that mean so much to me when it comes to knowing that God is with me all the time. In the big picture of life, it's easy to ignore the little things (which is why I have so many one-only earrings). But if we stop and notice the little things that are lost and then found, whether they are material or emotional or spiritual, then we really see what love our God has for us.

And one more note - I was sending an email to a friend and mentioned an attachment that I would be sending. I pressed "send" when I got a prompt saying, "You mentioned sending an attachment, but nothing is attached." A computer asking me about a missing attachment? I don't think so, but I think I know Someone who was.
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Thankful today for: Everley sleepover brunch at Cheesecake Factory with Lynnette, Lindley, Sarah, Melvin, Molly, and Everley

1 comment:

Denise in PA said...

While I don't typically lose earrings, I will tell you a story about a lost and found I did experience. My grandmother gifted me with her very beautiful engagement ring before she passed away (grandmother who raised me, lived with us for 8 years before she was gone...I still miss her every day)...the ring sports a round diamond in a platinum setting. Beautiful and irreplaceable to me (yes, because of cost, but moreso because of sentiment). I was getting ready to go to a wedding and decided to clean my rings so they'd be all shiny. I did so, dried them and put them back on, got dressed and off we went. We got about 5 minutes away from the house and I was telling hubby to look at how shiny my rings were when I looked down to find a gaping hole in my Gram's ring. We turned right around and went home (hubby said I know you won't have a good time at all unless you see if you can find that diamond). I knew it had to have happened after said cleaning, but what are the chances of finding a clear round item? I walked right into my bedroom and saw something sparkly on the cream colored afghan (made by Gram) folded at the end of my bed. There was the diamond. I burst into tears of joy. Thanked Gram and God, put the diamond and ring safely in a box in my jewelry case and left for the wedding. I shudder to think that if I hadn't realize the stone was missing or didn't see that little sparkle, I would have unfolded and shaken out that afghan that night when I went to bed and it would have gone flying who knows where, probably unnoticed by me. But, God noticed. o:)