Lost Backpacks and Little Miracles

There are little miracles that happen all around us.

This past week coming back from vacation in Seattle, I had the sinking feeling when I got home that something was not right. Lo and behold, I realized unpacking that I had forgotten my backpack on the plane. Uggh. And it gets worse. I left it on the first plane of my two plane connection, so it was not in Milwaukee (double uggh.). Then I realized what was in my backpack -- my checkbook, my palm pilot, my ipod, my car/house keys, my prescription sunglasses, the recharger for my camera, the new Harry Potter book, and my favorite Bible. (triple uggh.). Combine that with the airplane having a "Northwest Airlines" logo on the side (whose machinists and airplane cleaners are presently on strike), and I was not hopeful. I spent that night praying for a miracle -- that some good person would turn it in and everything would be there, but my heart sank the next morning when the Northwest Air service agent could not find it and said she was "not hopeful" that I would get it back. I went ahead and filed a lost bag claim anyway and just for fun, asked where the plane went after Minneapolis. Boston. So I dialed NWA Boston baggage claim and left a message about my lost backpack.

I was distrought. My morning was a wash. What was I going to do without all my stuff? MY LIFE was in that backpack, the $$ and the hours it would take to rectify this stressed me out.

But after the panic, there was a convicting silence. For the next few hours, something stirred in me. I figured out that that backpack meant a lot to me -- that is, the stuff IN the backpack. My palm pilot, my ipod, my books, my sunglasses -- all creature comforts that I held on to very closely. These are things I knew I could never afford to go out and replace. If they were lost, they were lost for good. And although I could close my checking account and open a new one easily enough, I saw all the hours I would lose having to update my life with a new account -- auto bill payments, new pin numbers, new checks...Those hours too would be lost for good.

But then I got to thinking, why am I holding these so closely? What is my motivation? Could I live without them? Did I own them or did they own me?

And lo and behold, I came to have a renewed desire for God in those few hours, unlike I had had for a long time. Because without the other "stuff" of life owning me, it turned out there was more room for Him. I realized that being stripped of certain things is a holy event, a window for God to enter in through and brighten up my life.

And I was ok with losing my backpack.

Later that day, Ms. Kirkland, the NWA worker from Boston called and said they had found my backpack (it had stayed in the overhead compartment on the connector somehow!) with everything in it. She even fed-exed it back to me at NWA's expense. Now THAT is a miracle.

But the bigger miracle may be the tiny change of heart that happened in me in those few hours I lived without. And even though I have it back (and am listening to my ipod as we speak!), I hope I don't lose the lesson I found having lost it.

What about you? What do you hold on to closely? What have you lost that may have helped find you in the process?

"All moments are key moments, and life itself is grace." -- Frederick Buechner

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