The Bungee Cord 1-29-24

Hello,

For those of you who travel often, what happened to me may not bring any anxiety to you, but it did to me. My wife and I took a trip to Texas, of which I wrote last week, and when we arrived back in Pennsylvania, we discovered that our luggage did not make the trip. We had hoped to carry our luggage on board, but my wife’s bag didn’t fit in the measuring device, so we had to check it to our final destination, Pittsburgh. We left San Antonio for our connection flight in Charlotte. We were a bit delayed out of San Antonio, but we got to our Charlotte gate just before they closed the airplane doors. We landed in Pittsburgh at 12:10 a.m., went down to the luggage claim, watched for our bag to come down onto the carrousel, but after 45 minutes, it never did. We went over to the service counter, only to find out that our bags did not make the connection, and that we would have to wait until the next day to receive them.

Fortunately, there was nothing of extreme importance in our luggage, so I wasn’t too worked up about their lost-ness. But I can only imagine how worked up I would have been if there was something of great value in those suitcases. If there would have been bars of gold in them, instead of bars of soap….or if there wouild have been bags of diamonds in them, instead of bags of laundry, I know I would have been really worked up. So worked up would have I been that I might have raised a little cane with the baggage attendant, and I don’t think I would have gotten a wink of sleep until that luggage was sitting on my front porch as they promised.

This incident brought to mind the Biblical story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15), where one of the father’s two sons strayed away and got himself lost in misery and starvation. The lost son finally came to himself and decided to return home and to be treated like a servant, having betrayed his father. But the Bible tells us that when the lost son was still far away, the father spotted him and came running to him and threw his arms around him. So thankful was the father that, to the son’s surprise, the father put the best robe on him, put the family ring on his finger, and announced a party that would be held in the lost son’s honor.

Something more valuable than all the father owned had been lost. Apparently, the father had not stopped worrying and watching for his son, every day gazing out into the horizon in hopes of seeing him, unable to work or sleep over concern for his son. And when that son finally made his way home, his joy could not be held in.

Jesus told this story to give us a picture of what God is like. God is like, Jesus said, this father who cannot rest while one of his children is lost, and when that child is back in God’s arms, there is a joy in God’s heart that erupts in a heavenly party. You and I are not mere pieces of luggage full of dirty clothes. You and I are of more value than all the gold or diamonds in the world. So valuable that God could not bear to be without us. So overwhelming is God’s desire to have us with him that he came to us to steal us away from the thieves and robbers of this world, and keep us treasured forever.

Have a great week! God’s grace and peace.

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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