When my wife and I lived in Virginia, we had a massive oak tree in our yard. When I say “massive,” I mean it was ancient! You could see the tree from our living room window in the front and then look out the window in the back of the house and see limbs from the same tree. The thing was giant. And, raking its leaves was a fearsome job. One day, as Wendy, the kids, and I finished filling endless garbage bags with leaves, I heard her exclaim “My wedding ring is gone!” My heart sank as I looked at the bags of leaves. We would never find it. But, Wendy wasn’t discouraged by the mounds of leaves. She dropped to her knees and started going through each bag, leaf by leaf. Finally, hours later I heard her scream, “I found it!” Sure enough, there sparkled the little diamond I had given her on our wedding day.

Wendy was persistent and would not give up. She prized that ring so much that it didn’t matter how long she had to search – she was going to find it. We all have things of great value to us like that ring. But do you know what God values? Of course, He values people. II Peter tells us that it is not God’s will that anyone should perish. And yet, just as we all once were, people are lost without Him.

Are we looking for the lost as if they are valuable? It’s our calling. Wendy faithfully searched for her ring because it was precious to her. Let’s treat lost souls in the same way.  Our hearts should ache to the point of action to reach our world until what’s lost is found.                                                          This is Andrew Palau.