Lost May Not Mean Gone Forever

Have you ever lost something, I mean really lost something? The thing you lost was so lost that you never thought you would ever see it again.

lost may not mean gone forever

Recently I lost something that bad.

Usually I’m pretty good at finding things I’ve misplaced. I trace my steps, recall where I’ve been or what I’ve done and often am able to locate the item that’s gone AWOL.

But not this time. I played out all the possible scenarios, the places I could have put this thing – my Apple Pencil – but it was lost.

An Apple Pencil is a utensil used for drawing and writing on an iPad. It is incredibly accurate and is even pressure sensitive. You can write lightly or darker, even use shading.

You can probably guess that it cost a few bucks, so losing it was a real concern of mine. 

I recalled the steps I might have taken with it or where I would have put it. It was not in any of those places.

I usually keep it in my briefcase and there had been a few times I had taken my briefcase out of the house. I was sure I had lost it then.

… There was another time when something of mine got so lost I’d given up hope. 

I was probably in about grade 7 or 8. I had a pet iguana we called, “Iguan (Eguon)”. After a few years he had grown to about 2 feet long.

He was certainly big enough to notice if he was next to you.

Well, we were going on a family vacation and I thought I would let him out in the back yard for a bit before we left. 

I turned my head for a moment and the guy was gone. I mean, he was green and I had put him in the grass, but he took off fast!

All my searching turned up nothing – no lizard. 

So we left on vacation for two weeks … the coldest two weeks of the summer. I was sure he was a goner, that I’d never see him, or at least alive, again. 

But when we arrived home, my neighbour told me he had seen Iguan in some bushes the previous week. I looked and, sure enough, he was still there. I found my iguana, even though I thought he was lost forever.

After all my searching for my Apple Pencil, I was sure it had fallen out of my briefcase somewhere and was gone forever. 

I almost bought a new one but the store didn’t have any in stock. 

That night I was thinking about my pencil and a thought came into my head. I remembered travelling to our daughter’s home and staying there. And I had taken my iPad and thought maybe I had taken my Apple Pencil as well. I determined to check my travel bag in the morning. 

Sure enough after a check, it was way down, wedged into one of seams of the bag. 

What I thought I’d never see again, I found. I can’t tell you how happy I was to find that Apple Pencil. 

… It was almost like the joy of the guy in the Bible who found his lost son. 

Here’s the thing: God never gives up on finding people who are lost – and by lost, I mean people who do not have a relationship with God. He keeps searching, so don’t try so hard to hide from Him … and, by that I mean be open to listen for Him calling after you. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you lost that you thought you’d never see again? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Right Perspective Is A Game Changer

I’m learning how to create the right perspective in a drawing. It’s all about how your eyes see things in the distance. 

the right perspective is a game changer

This past spring I got a new iPad and along with it I got an Apple Pencil. I didn’t know exactly what I would use it for, but I really liked how well it worked and how responsive it was. 

So in the summer, on vacation, I started to fool around with using the pencil to draw things.

It had been years since I had done any drawing whatsoever … unless you count doodling on scrap paper while I’m talking on the phone. I do remember way back when I was in high school that I used to draw the album covers from some of my favourite artists.

I have absolutely no training. I don’t know anything about lines, shading or anything, including perspective. Some of my drawings I liked; others were pretty bad – certainly not good enough to show anyone, although I did keep them. 

When Lily and I had our kids, going out and getting a babysitter was kind of expensive for us. So we tried some creative dating at home. 

Once I came home with a couple of pads of drawing paper and some pencils. Lil, who is talented in drawing and painting, drew something that looked good. What I drew, well, I can’t remember, but it was not so hot. 

Fast forward to this year. In the summer, a couple of drawings I did needed some perspective and I found that really hard to draw. So I asked Lily and she gave me some tips and showed me what I needed to be doing. 

Still it was tough to get the right perspective. 

You have to be able to locate the vanishing point and make the drawing get smaller towards that point. Then everything looks right in the picture. 

Perspective is not just important for drawing pictures, but also for other things. 

Last night I was at a hockey game and had a person sitting right beside me. 

When the arena was designed, it was done with great care to make sure there were good sight lines all over the rink. Our seats are near center ice and we can see both ends … that is if people sit properly. 

The person sitting next to me decided to sit a little forward in her seat. In other words, she didn’t have her back against the back of her seat. 

Well, that wrecked my perspective. The arena’s design works and everyone can see only if everyone has their back against the back of their seat. If someone sits forward they take the sight lines away and you can’t see what is happening in the corners. 

She understood what she was doing to my sight lines when I mentioned it. But it wasn’t long before she was sitting forward again and taking away my perspective.

… I would have sketched her but I couldn’t get the right perspective. 

Here’s the thing: Things get blocked or they just don’t look right when you don’t have the right perspective. It’s also true with God. Without the right perspective, we don’t see Him correctly or He may be blocked from our view. Get the right perspective by reading God’s word, the Bible. It gives us a very clear picture of Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need proper perspective on right now? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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