God Can Help Find Keys…and So Much More
I lose my keys—plain and simple. I used to be insecure about this little character flaw of mine, but at this point in my life, I have accepted the fact that I will never improve in this area. Even as I am sitting here at my desk, sharing a few thoughts with you…absolutely no idea where my keys are.
Out of an effort to remedy this problem in my life, Julieann, my first-born daughter, bought me a cool little tool that communicates with my phone. I have an app that I can turn on, touch a button, and my phone sends out a signal to this little device that, in turn, sends out a message to my phone that says, “hey…the idiot left me over here!” I then follow a prompt that leads me right to my keys—amazing. Probably the best Christmas gift I have ever received.
The other day I was working with my wife at The Thrift Store unloading a large truck, and moving items around the store. At some point I had to meet my dad at my house, load a piece of furniture into his truck, and ride with him over to his house to unload.
As we were preparing to load, I did something that my brain told me was stupid—as I was doing it. I put the keys to my truck, and the keys to my car on his bumper. These are two separate sets of keys, and the car keys also have the keys to our church on them…my only set of church keys! After loading, I jumped into his truck, and away we went.
During the unloading process, I walked out onto the porch of dad’s shop, and took my phone out of my pocket. When I looked at it, I was surprised to see that the “Find My Keys” app was open and on. This is usually a two-step process to activate—and one that I often forget how to use. However, there it was, open and on.
Well, I completely disregarded the thing, and put my phone back in my pocket—you know, because I was busy. After our work was completed, Cheryl picked me up and brought me home. As she and I were pulling into our driveway, it hit me—like a ton of bricks falling from a 12-story window it hit me…my keys. I had left my keys on the bumper of my dad’s truck. At that moment I literally said out loud…”
That’s what that was all about.” That explains why the lost keys app was open on my phone.
See, I have a strong belief that God is always speaking, always guiding, and always helping. The difficulty is that we are not always aware of his assistance. I am also convinced that He can use whatever means necessary in His efforts—even an app on a cell phone. As the anxiety of lost keys forever began to settle into my chest, I took my phone out and opened the app to locate, hopefully, my keys that now lay on Ga. Hwy. 212, somewhere between the sheriff’s office and Farmers Furniture…hopefully.
I touched the locate button and there they were, laying in the middle of the road in front of the Circle K gas station. That is where my car keys were—but where were my truck keys? I drove to the location, and collected my keys out of the middle of the highway, amazed that they had not been run over, which would have resulted in the receiver thing being destroyed, and my keys lost forever. I was relieved, but keenly aware of the fact that my truck keys were still lost.
If I had only paid more attention to that app being open on my phone—if I had stopped for just a few seconds longer, I would have seen my keys in the middle of the road, in danger of being run over—and I would have realized the rest of what God was trying to tell me before I left my dad’s house.
Pulling away from the gas station, I knew what I had to do—and so began the trips up and down Hwy. 212 looking for my truck keys. As I traveled back towards my fathers’ house for the last time, I had the audacity to ask God if he could please have held my truck keys onto the bumper of that truck. I also wondered if that was part of what he was trying to say to me earlier. I got to his house, walked to the back of the truck—and there they were, sitting on the bumper, exactly where I left them.
See, here’s the thing. We spend a lot of time, and prayer, hoping and searching for the big and miraculous actions of God. We get very excited to see when He does things that bring healing, extend life, provide the job, mend relationships, and answer the great questions—and I embrace the wonderment of those moments. But sometimes, actually oftentimes, God does things that He really didn’t have to—he didn’t have to, but he did.
Little beautiful things like telling us that we lost our keys again. Then he goes a little further and holds our keys onto the bumper of our truck—to save us some time and worry—and money. I am always amazed at these moments; these little beautiful moments when God reminds us of how much he loves us…even in our mistakes.