It once was lost...

In Luke 15:8-9, Jesus tells this parable:

"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' " (NIV)

[Some commentators say that the coins were a gift/symbol of marriage.]

Last night, in order to take a shower, I took off all my jewellery and placed them on the top of the toilet cistern. Once it was all over, I went to pick up all my jewellery again, but unfortunately my engagement ring slipped back between the lid of the cistern and the wall. So, I pulled the lid off and the ring fell into the cistern.

However, no matter how hard I looked, and no matter how hard Clem looked, we couldn't find the ring in the cistern. I was distraught. I was in tears to my dad on the phone. We looked in the bowl (with the toilet brush - I was prepared to put my bare hand in the cistern, I refuse to do that with the bowl) although I knew it couldn't have directly fallen into the bowl as the seat lid had been down. We finally guessed it was probably in the S bend but neither Clem or I had any idea how to get in there and we weren't flushing the toilet to hope it came out that way. (Too risky.)

So, my wonderful father-in-law came over (he lives down the street) (while my own fantastic dad was driving over from half an hour away) and pulled apart our toilet (at 11:30pm) and I got my ring back.

I so understand that woman's pain and rejoicing.