That Will I Seek

M has a little toy kitten that he lost a while back. We have been looking for “Gray Kitty” for months. We’ve looked in the toy box, the dress up box, M’s dresser, behind all the furniture, everywhere we can think of. He has a habit of putting Gray Kitty in things like boxes, drawers, bags, backpacks, etc. and forgetting that he has done so. Anyway, I am beginning to work on the playroom (again…sigh….) and get it organized, and that was really our last hope for finding Gray Kitty. I just had run out of ideas about where to look.

Until today. And I wasn’t even looking for it. I was going through Boo’s closet and taking out clothes she has outgrown and organizing the blankets she had pulled out and spread all around the floor of the closet. While folding the blankets and deciding what could go in the give away bag, I found her little spare diaper bag, which I haven’t looked at in a long time. I don’t know why I decided to look inside it, but, lo and behold, when I did, there was Gray Kitty. Right where it had been all these months we’ve been tearing apart the house looking for it.

I am beside myself. I cannot wait to see M’s face when I give it back to him and tell him it’s been found! In fact, I’ve been trying to call Drew at work and tell him just so I can share the joy that we’ve finally found the thing that’s been lost.

I got to thinking. If I, as a very imperfect parent, have this much joy in restoring this little, unimportant toy to my son, how much more joy does our Heavenly Father have in giving His very important and very good gifts to His people?

Matthew 7:7-14 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.”

For those who, by faith in Jesus Christ, are on the narrow way which leads to life, God graciously turns our desires from the empty, vain pursuits that are the best treasure this world has to offer to the fullness of joy that comes in knowing and serving and loving Jesus. As I grow in faith and learn what He has revealed about Himself in His word and learn to delight in Him, He will give me the desires of my heart. When my chief joy is in glorifying Him, when I learn to seek Him as the treasure of all treasures, He grants me the supreme joy of knowing Him and fellowshipping with Him and worshiping Him. In fact, He delights to do so. He has granted me the inexpressible gift of grace that I might be reconciled to Him and brought from darkness into His marvelous light. As I seek Him, I will find Him. Because, of all the gifts He could give, the greatest gift of all is Himself. To know Him and be known by Him, to belong to Christ and find my joy in Him, this is the greatest and most precious gift of all. What an incredible thought!