The Lost Contact

Did you ever lose a contact lens?

First thing that happens is – you panic.

Oh no! How am I going to drive home? How will I finish my work? How can I talk to people with one eye closed? So you start searching for it.

Naturally, when people see you crawling on the floor, fingers spread out, patting around everywhere, their second reaction is that they have to help you find your contact lens. (Their first reaction usually borders on – uh-oh, I think s/he’s gone crazy).

And how do you feel when someone finally finds it for you? Your gratitude is boundless. It’s almost as if they saved your life. You’re ready to do anything for them just because they found your contact lens.

But imagine that you didn’t actually lose your contact lens. You intentionally hid it somewhere on the floor so that you would have the opportunity to show your appreciation to someone. Of course, THEY don’t know that you hid it, they just gratefully accept your gratitude when they find it.

God has 613 treasures, also known as mitzvah’s (positive and negative commandments of the Bible). And He’s hidden them in various places to be found at different times.

Every time we grab hold of one of them, it’s as if we are returning it to its Owner.

He’s told us what they are, but sometimes their purpose is not so easy to “find”. Don’t kill, don’t steal – make sense to us. Honor your parents – that one’s obvious but not so easy. Others like lighting Friday night candles or not mixing meat with milk might be difficult to “find”, but that just makes the reward for them even greater. And when you realize who the Owner is, that’s enough of a purpose to look for them.

God doesn’t wear contacts and He can’t lose anything. So everything, including mitzvah’s, must have been put here for our benefit. The more we search for and find, the greater the reward.

See?