One Lone Lid

My husband carried two bins up from the basement.
The bins have blue painter’s tape on the lid.
Fall Decorations is printed in my handwriting.
I love opening the bins up each year.

The wood blocks that spell, Happy Harvest, have their place on top of my Hoosier cabinet.
The Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin primitive dolls, that every child loves, sits on top of an old scale.
Rustic pumpkins made of wood are on the dining room table.
A country sign that says, Autumn Blessings, is over one of  the doors.

The fall decorations will be up until the day after Thanksgiving.
On that day, we take the fall decorations down and put them away.
On that day, we bring up numerous bins, which hold all of our Christmas decorations.
That day, when we decorate for Christmas, is one of my favorite days.

As my husband carried one of the bins upstairs, he commented on the lid.
This lid doesn’t fit, he said.
I could see that the lid was not fastened well at all.
It was sliding from side to side.

I’ll look for another lid, he said.
There isn’t one, I told him.
Sure there is, he said confidently.
We have a whole storage closet down there with bins and lids, he reminded me.

There are none that will fit this one, I told him.
I went through all the bins after our youngest daughter moved into her apartment.
I made sure each bin had an appropriate lid.
Every bin in the storage closet has a matching lid.

He went down to the storage closet anyway.
You’re right, he called from the basement.
There are no extra lids and none fit this bin.
When I organize a closet, I really organize a closet.

Somewhere along the way, the lid to that bin disappeared.
One that was the close in size and color was used so this bin would have a lid.
It doesn’t matter that it’s a wrong lid when the bin is on the large steel shelves in the basement.
It does matter when you carry the Fall Decorations bin upstairs with the contents inside.

Isn’t that always the way it goes?
One lone lid is missing.
It happens all the time, particularly with socks in the washer.
Two socks go into the washer but only one comes out of the dryer.

Somewhere between the washer and dryer, the sock disappears.
I am certain there is a place where lost socks go.
Either that, or my washer and dryer feast on socks on any given day.
There is no possible way for one lone sock to disappear.

It is not just the lid to the Fall Decorations bin that is lost.
It is also the lids to Pyrex glassware I use for leftovers.
I just had to order more lids, since some of the old lids are not in the kitchen cabinet.
How can I have more Pyrex glassware than lids?

Is there a place where lost lids go, somewhere in the back of the dishwasher?
Where do the lost things go?
I remember hearing a song about that during the Mary Poppins Returns movie.
I also remember that song made me cry, a lot, when I saw the movie with my daughters.

Nothing stays lost for very long with Jesus.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)
Jesus will leave the ninety-nine to search for the one. (Luke 15:4)
Jesus has not lost one that the Father gave Him. (John 18:9)

Jesus seeks and saves the lost.
In Christ, the lost are found and go to heaven to be with Him forever.
Those who trust in themselves, their good works, or anything besides Jesus, remain lost.
Without Jesus, there is no salvation at all; they will be separated from Him forever in hell.

Jesus seeks and saves the lost.
One lone soul, who comes to Him in faith will never be turned away.
In Christ, the place where lost things go is heaven.
Jesus seeks and saves one lone soul who trusts in Him.