Today…. “You’ve got mail!” Actually this comes out of my e-mail folder. I just feel like there are some nuggets for all of us to glean. The first note is from a gal who was a student of mine over 30 years ago. We just recently reconnected last fall in Florida. She is a missionary in Mexico and wherever the Lord sends her. Returning from Spain a few weeks ago Natalie writes:

Dear Marie,

“One of my pieces of luggage was lost on the way back and 5 days later has yet to be found. Each airline involved says they don't have it, the other one does. Perhaps you recall a large suitcase of mine was lost for good on a trip almost exactly 4 years ago. I am incredulous that this could happen to anyone twice! I am ashamed to confess I have thought "I'm cursed," but of course that is saying that God cursed me and He certainly has not, He has blessed me in many ways. I have been meditating on Job 38-42 to try to have the right attitude toward this.

The last time I think I learned a good deal about not caring about my material possessions much. And this time I can honestly say that they and their value are not what bother me. I’m not even mourning the loss of my lime green sneakers! What I am mourning is the loss of all the little gifts I was bringing back for family, not expensive, but irreplaceable. Most of all I am saddened that I lost a sweater I was knitting for my nephew, the pattern is 6 years old and I had been looking for yarns for over a year (they are not sold in Mexico or Florida) only to finally find them in Scotland. I got about a third of the sweater knitted on my various train trips. (I would have taken it on the plane to knit but, as you know, knitting needles are considered mortal weapons these days.) I don’t know what I am supposed to learn from this…not to buy gifts or knit baby clothes as a way to love people? So I ask forprayer for my heart AND that the suitcase is found.

My responding email….

Dearest Natalie,

How very much we can identify with your lost luggage prayer request.  We also had a "delayed" luggage upon our arrival in Germany last month.  It also was loaded with gifts for the children and parents we were sent to minister to Christmas week.  The good news is that it was finally discovered....but not until we were already home for a few days.  The airline let the family retrieve it in Hamburg, take out the gifts, and then the airline shipped it back to us.  Happy ending!  We pray likewise for you to have a happy ending to this "adventure".

It is all part of this Christian journey isn't it?  I also went through the whole gambit of emotions.  Including feeling very abandoned and let down by God, whom I thought was big enough to have caused the luggage to have arrived with our other two pieces. 

Satan tried very hard to convince me of his bigness and God's smallness .  It was a mental battle that I should not have entertained for a second! But, I did!  And I have repented.  The good thing is that through it all I learned some things about myself that still needed healing, some things about God that still needed revelation, and some things about the devil who is ALWAYS a deceiver!

Sometimes the hardest scripture to believe is that God will work all things out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!.... So, we come to the place where we dry our tears, repent of giving place to the devil by our fears and anxieties, and begin again to rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.  This is a process...a journey we are all on!  I so want to be unmovable by the attacks of life or the devil don't you?  Do you think with all our knowledge of the Word and God that it might be possible to become content to know nothing but Christ Crucified?

All of that shared....I will be praying today specifically for the Lord to reveal where that luggage might be. We also got the run around in Germany...Language differences might have been a factor.  However when I got home I contacted the airlines we traveled on through a USA representative....gave more information, and in two hours an airline employee from Brussels called saying they had found the baggage.  It was sitting in Brussels since the 26th of December and could have easily been flown to Hamburg before we left Germany.  He was surprised that the information had not been entered into the system earlier.... hummmm

I had all but convinced myself that it had been stolen because someone saw all the nice gifts....that also was a lie of the enemy.  Perhaps the Lord will give you some action to take that you have not thought about.

The rest of the Germany story is that the family got the luggage on New Year's Eve.  They had a second Christmas.  This came at a perfect time since the mother, Anke, had just returned the previous evening from a heart wrenching funeral for her sister.  She had been gone for two days and this extravagant blessing of the Lord for the family arriving exactly when it did was like a warm blanket of Father God's love falling upon her....at exactly the right time!!!!!   

I am sure Satan had his hand in the delay...but God had the upper hand in the delivery!!!  Besides, one other revelation, the Lord showed me that touching the luggage was ALL Satan got away with....this trip was so ordained of the Lord and the resulting ministry times there were vital for the people with whom we were able to share the Father's love.   We learned, by the Spirit, that there were also other attempts upon our health and safety.  They were thwarted!  Glory to God!

From Natalie,

Hello again,

Again I'll be quick here because I want to let you know as soon as possible that I just picked up my lost piece of luggage! I am so grateful that I submitted this for prayer, because there is more glory for the Lord in it being found this way, ten days later. And your emails telling me of your prayers really lifted my spirits. I am also grateful that I have it in time to knit during the 35 hours of bus travel ahead of me in the following weeks .