“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10
Summer before last, I vacationed in the Texas hill country with some friends. We spent one day of our trip floating in big, black inner tubes on the Guadalupe River. It was great fun on a hot summer day to laze in the sun while the cold, swimming-pool clear river pulled our little caravan of inner tubes gently downstream. We were well equipped with sodas and snacks and sunscreen. The kids had diving masks so they could check out the fish and plants on the bottom.
Then a bad thing happened: Jacob lost his mask. He put on a brave face, but of course not having a mask was a serious monkey wrench in the afternoon. We made up our minds to find it.
We looked and looked, all of us. We kicked upstream, face down on our inner tubes, to the last spot he remembered having it, then we drifted downstream to the place where he realized it was missing, all the while scanning the grass and rocks that covered the river bottom. It was hard to see past the sunlight reflecting on the water’s surface. We repeated the pattern two or three times. No mask.
Stick with me now. I’m working toward a point.
We paddled to the bank to discuss the situation. On a previous vacation with the same friends, I’d succeeded in finding an earring that had fallen five stories from the condominium balcony to the sand dune below. That long-shot victory spurred me on. I borrowed Suzann’s mask and got serious. I ditched the inner tube and began to swim a grid up and down the fifty or so yards of river between the two points.
Here’s the thing: The Holy Spirit began to nudge my spirit that day and in the days that followed. The little scenario with Jacob’s mask had spiritual significance. The Spirit was speaking to me through these circumstances in the same way He speaks through dreams. It became a metaphor, a parable from the Lord to me.
The significance was this: Giving up was not an acceptable option because I knew the mask was there. It wasn’t an iffy thing. The mask was definitely in the river, definitely in the vicinity we were searching.
Jesus came to seek and to save not only people’s souls, but their destinies as well. Those destinies are the reason and purpose for which each of us was born in Christ. According to Psalm 37:4, they are our dreams—our deepest desires. According to Ephesians 2:10, they are good works for us to walk in, which God ordained before we were ever born in Adam.
You, me, every single one of us who is born of the Spirit was appointed from the womb of the morning to do something great—something beyond human capacity or ability—to manifest the wisdom and power of God in our world. All we have to do is find that purpose, that dream, that power. Find it like treasure hidden in a field. Like a pearl of great price.
It’s there. Don’t let yourself doubt that it is definitely there. Seek it with all your heart and you will find it.
I know. I found the mask.