Prodigal puppets

Lost keys.  Lost phone.  Lost anything.  How do you rejoice when the lost is found?  Last month my study group visited some precious children.  We arrived with scissors, glue, yarn, buttons, socks, and plenty of plastic wiggly eyes, all for constructing puppets for these sweet ones with disabilities.  Accessible for both ambulatory and wheelchair-bound, our craft area donned huge smiles to welcome these preschoolers.  I brought my cardboard theater and some extra puppets in case anyone wanted to play puppeteer while today’s glue still dried, and indeed glee displayed when these young ones danced their puppets at the cardboard window.  A wonderfully joyful day all-around.  Later returning home, I realized 4 of my finger puppets were missing:  a rabbit, a frog, a lion, and an elephant.  No sign of them in my cart, nor in my bag.  If somehow they remained on the table at the children’s center, I asked the Lord to use them to entertain again and again.  In case they were lost somewhere else, I asked Him to reveal them to me.  As weeks passed, I almost forgot about them, until last Wednesday when I lifted a pair of black pants off the clothes hanger.  There in the right-hand pocket were a rabbit, a frog, and an elephant.  Stepping back into the closet, I found the lion on the floor.  And, oh, how my heart quickened to remember my prayer.  Certainly on the surface nothing seemed too significant about 4 miniature puppets made of ordinary fabric.  Yet the Lord used the ordinary to remind me how extraordinarily He hears and listens to the voices of His children.  How personal and detailed He is with us.  So I want to celebrate with Him first, before sharing with any family or friend.  And to celebrate as He does, I need His compassion.  Luke 15 explains that compassion leads the Lord to celebrate in abundance.  With a feast and a robe, He welcomes and rejoices for the lost being found, the dead coming alive.  So I ask Him to impart to us His compassion, as my newly found puppets remind me.  May we receive and carry forward in joy.