GodReflection: Power Word Wednesday
I was born in a state that is consistently missing.
Each month the state tourist magazine carries a column with the title: One of Our Fifty is Missing.
Guest writers fill the section with antidotes of being asked for passports when flying from other states or checking into their hotels. 
Contributors chuckle as they relate times when they needed a supervisor’s intervention at mail order outlets upon being told the store does not ship to foreign countries.
The punch line is always a geography lesson on the exact location of the Land of Enchantment, the State of New Mexico.
Check the map. It is in fact a state located among the lower 48 of the USA between the nations of Canada and Mexico.
No one likes the reality of being missing.
To not be missed is one of the great tragedies of our world.
It is a travesty for those who feel the despair and loneliness of daily life when a loved one is missing from a family circle due to abduction, the act of a misguided child-run-away, the elderly who can’t find their way home, or a gazillion other acts that makes missing a painful reality.
Like a rock thrown into a calm pond, missing creates ever expanding circles of hurt.
Jesus told three stories each with one glaring piece missing from the lesson’s Jigsaw Puzzles. In each case Father God could not rest until the missing piece was found.
There was the flock of one hundred sheep. Ninety-nine were safe within the Shepherd’s care. One was missing.
A woman had ten coins. Nine were secure in her coin purse but one was misplaced.
A father had two sons. One was safe at home. One was missing.
In all three stories Jesus places the focus on sadness caused by loss and the joy of finding.
Here is what I think.
Why should I be surprised that the All Knowing God knows my name and cares for me as His child? There was a time when I was on His missing list. The other sheep, coins, and sons were safe—I was not. I was missing.
I have no idea how many rocks He turned over in my search. My good news is that He found me. The ultimate of all tragedy would be to remain on the missing list.
Shouldn’t the ever present thought of Father God who turned over heaven and earth by watching His Son Jesus die so that my name might be removed from the missing list be a powerful image to help me walk in gratefulness to the Holy?
It makes missing a rather powerful word don’t you think?
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on Missing as a Power Word.
God Reflection 
I didn’t miss the point of this blog, but I chuckled when I remembered my own “missing NM” story. I once tried to mail a pkg in Elkton Maryland to Carlsbad NM and was told, “we can’t send anything that far”. It took some convincing, that NM was really a state inside the USA.
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