Lost and Found

On Friday last week, I decided to take the girls to the mall for a little playing time at the Treehouse. We had a good time, got some wiggles out, and then left to make a quick deposit at the bank and head on home for naps. Unfortunately when I arrived at the drive through, I pulled open my purse only to notice my wallet missing! Oh the panic that sets in when you lose something so important. I immediately had a knot in my stomach. Where did I leave it? What if someone took it? What would the hubby say?

Needless to say, we headed back to the mall in an attempt to search for the wallet. I had all these thoughts racing through my head, as I tried to mentally retrace my steps. I went to customer service, they hadn't seen it. I went to the bathroom, it wasn't there. I turned the mini van upside down. It wasn't there. Meanwhile I had one girl getting cranky from her lack of nap and another asking tons of questions as to why we were going back to the mall. I had to calm myself down, so I wouldn't snap at them with their hundred questions. My only remaining thought was that I had left it on top of the car as I had unbuckled one of the girls (not a smooth move, but all together possible). I searched the sidelines of the road as I headed home...but nothing.

We came home and I felt complete despair. My heart continued to race, and all I could do was give myself little pep talks to keep it together. I put Katie to bed, stuck a video in for Kyra, and began to call all the companies of the credit cards I recalled having in my wallet. I just finished the last one, when my brother in-law called wondering what I was doing on the phone for so long. I felt like shouting, "I'm trying to avoid a situation of identity theft, so get off the phone!" But he quickly added..."You can get off the phone now, because someone found your wallet!" Really? It seems someone drove by, found a wallet in a ditch, and picked it up. He had been trying to contact me for the last 1/2 hour, but I was on the phone, so he contacted another person in the phone book with the same last name (my brother in-law!). Oh, what a relief!!

I picked up my wallet later on that evening from this gentleman's house. I offered him some money, but he refused. He said he lost his wallet once and had much of the same feeling. He saw it out of the corner of his eye as he was driving, and picked it up. He didn't want someone else to have the same feeling he did. He simply said to pay if forward someday.

I thought later on that evening of his kindness. In the world we live in today, we think the worst of people. We think someone would immediately max out the credit cards, ruin our credit, steal our money. And if we continue to think the worst of people, dwell on the evil of this world, we will become hopeless. Thank goodness, God is so much bigger than the sins and evils of this world. He gives us hope, even if it for a lost wallet!