One day I went to visit a friend with his family. My friend has two kids, a girl 8 and a boy 4. We were in the living room chatting while his wife and daughter were fixing dinner in the kitchen. Our discussion was interrupted with an outburst of sobbing and inconsolable cacophony coming from Johnnie’s playroom. We ran in, afraid that Johnnie had come to some harm. It was not easy for Johnnie to tell us what had gone wrong, so great was his distress and so deep his sorrow. Johnnie’s dad began to examine his son carefully. Thank goodness, there was no blood anywhere. Finally Johnnie was calm enough to tell us what had happened. He had lost one of his drumsticks. You see Johnnie had a mini band set bought for him by his dad. Johnnie just loved to play his set, especially the drums. Just sitting there in his playroom and hitting those drums gave him as much joy as getting soaked in a pool on a hot afternoon. The sense of fulfillment and pleasure on his little face as he plays his drums could only be equated with someone winning a lottery. Johnnie’s drums brought him so much joy that he would just sleep in his playroom or with his drum sticks resting peacefully and comfortably on his chest as he sleeps in his room. You can imagine the agony, the distress and sheer loss that enveloped Johnnie as he searched everywhere for his drumstick. Jesus Christ had the best way to describe Johnnie’s world: Where your treasure is there is your heart.
We had to help search for Johnnie’s drumstick. Luckily, the missing drumstick was right there under the drums. As soon as Johnnie got his drumstick back peace returned to the house but then the actual noise began with Johnnie demonstrating his playing skills. He was a happy man again.
At first it was difficult to imagine that the loss of a drumstick could bring so much sadness to the usually boisterously happy four year old. His world had almost come to an end without his drumstick. To me it was just a drumstick, but to Johnnie it was a treasure. He had to find it if we were to have peace.
What is your drumstick? Everyone has misplaced something of great value in the past or even now. How miserable we have been while we searched for our missing item. When we have found our missing item, it brought us a great joy that we felt like celebrating it. This reminds us of the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son as recorded in Luke’s Gospel chapter 15.
I know some other person who is very particular about his drumsticks. His name is God, his son is Jesus Christ and his assistant is the Holy Spirit. He sees all of us as his drumsticks. He reminds us of how much he loves us and how sad he would be if one of us were lost. His Son tells us “ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise it on the last day”, Jn. 6:39. In verse in 37 he tells us, “all that the Father gives me will come to me, I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.” In Isaiah 49:15-16 God demonstrates his love for us even more. He asks, “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name.” Jeremiah 31:3 reiterates how much we mean to God, “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Yes we are the drumsticks of God and his plans for us are to lead us to greener pastures. He says to us through the mouth of Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the Lord, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.”
Just like Johnnie was happy and contented after he had found his drumstick so is God. When we have sinned and found our way back to God our father, and repented of our sins, God rejoices over us just as Johnnie rejoiced over his drumstick that was lost but then found. Listen to Jesus as he talks about one of his father’s drumsticks that was lost but found: “I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” Lk. 15:7.
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