God Loves Fountain Pens Too

It is said that there's a season for restoration of lost things.

 

One Monday recently, I lost my favorite fountain pen. I remember exactly where I was the last time I used it and had possession of it, but it wasn't anywhere near there. I turned my house upside down looking for it. Searched my van twice. Looked in my briefcase four times. I called offices in two cities where I'd been, asking if it had turned up, and even emailed a photo of the pen to help them identify it. Thinking it might have fallen out of my pocket when I'd emptied the kitchen trash, I went through the contents of a full garbage can piece by piece, looking for it.

 

Nothing.

 

No pen anywhere.

 

Oddly enough, it never occurred to me to declare out loud, "I WANT MY PEN BACK!", even though I very much believe the Lord responds in fun ways to our asking and have heard many testimonies to that effect. But the Lord knew I was disappointed (I'd told Him so), and I resigned myself to having to buy another pen.

 

Meanwhile, on the third day, late Wednesday afternoon... my wife was walking out of her office building on her way to the parking lot. Her attention was drawn to something that clattered just a little on the ground in front of her, as though she had inadvertently kicked it. She looked down and saw a black fountain pen, with the cap lying a foot or so away from the body of the pen.

 

My wife usually isn't a "scavenger" sort, but she picked it up the loose pieces because she thought I might want to look at this interesting pen before she turned it in to lost and found where she worked.

 

What my wife did not know is that my favorite pen had been missing two days. Nor did she know anything about my particular pen - she would never have been able to "pick it out of a line-up," so to speak. To her, the pen she saw on the ground was just a nice looking pen that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

 

So guess whose fountain pen she happened to find...

 

"You found my pen!"

 

"That's yours? I found it on the ground outside my office", she told me.

 

"On the ground? At your office? Are you kidding?!!"

 

It quickly dawned on us both that something really fun had happened.

 

How my pen wound up on the ground, with the cap off, at her workplace - especially since I hadn't been within seven miles of the area - I have no "earthly" idea. But I know that this pen is mine from the minor scratches I'd put on the body of it along the way and how the cap is missing a little of its chrome in a certain place. And I am thrilled to have it back!

 

The really neato part?

 

The nib (the delicate pointy end you write with) wasn't bent in the least way. A fountain pen, on the ground, with the cap off - and still having no damage - that's also a miracle.

 

The "take-away" for me in this event is the heavenly Father's love for me and for us all. In the overall scheme of things, we're talking about an inexpensive fountain pen - objectively speaking, it's "no big deal". There are far more important things going on in the world; even in my world, I'm dealing with serious health problems and a career change. But the Father used this little encounter to breathe his kindness on me, and through it He refreshed me tremendously and renewed my joy through a small thing that mattered to me.

 

For once, I didn't miss it.

 

Thank you Father!

 

- M.R.

 

(PS: I just realized how someday I will recognize the angel involved - he'll be the one with ink stains on his hands.)