“Could I borrow your metal detector?”
You don’t get a text like that from your sister every day.
It turns out that my sister Treasa is having plumbing issues at her house. After a plumber’s inspection, her husband contacted the county to ask them to come and check their drain cleanout.
But the workers who came to clear out the pipe couldn’t find the cap for the cleanout in the yard. When Treasa called my husband with that update, he said, “Why don’t we lend you our metal detector?”
You might not own a metal detector. Ours was a Christmas gift to one of our sons a few years ago. I might have imagined we would use it on the beach to discover long-lost gold forgotten by pirates. But here it is instead on its way to my sister’s house to try to find a drain clean-out.
One way or another, maybe it will help find a treasure.
Life is busy, so I take the metal detector to my office, where it will be easier to hand off to my sister during the day. She arrives, having left her five children briefly with our mother. Treasa hardly ever comes to visit me at work, but today she is on a mission. I introduce her to one colleague after another. We are a friendly office, and everyone loves a visitor.
It occurs to me that even though children and pets pop into the background of Zoom meetings, you don’t often meet your colleagues’ siblings. Treasa is like a celebrity. As I circle the office, making introductions, I explain again and again that she’s here to pick up my metal detector.
Just seeing people’s faces through my explanation makes the whole visit worth it. Some take it all in stride. Others laugh. Even with my brief summary of what is happening, you can see their eyes are full of questions. Still, we can’t stick around because there is work to be done – at the office and in the yard. So, I wish her the best, explain briefly how to use the detector, and send her on her way.
As she drives away, I wonder whether the metal detector will come through for her. If nothing else, I imagine my nieces and nephews can hunt for pennies on the living room floor.
Today, we might be looking for a solution to a plumbing problem, but so much of life is spent seeking something. As a mother, I spend time every day looking for something – socks, homework papers, jackets, shoes, remote controls, phone chargers, beloved stuffed animals and that field trip form that seems to have vanished. But the truth is that we all spend life searching – for answers, for deeper understanding, for purpose, for love and for hope.
What we’re really looking for, of course, is God. What we long for, even when we might not realize it or might resist it, is a deeper relationship with him. He created us to be close to him, he loves us so deeply, and he walks this journey with us. He is ours, and we are his.
“Grant me, O Lord my God,” St. Thomas Aquinas said, “a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you and a hope of finally embracing you.”
This Lent, as we walk toward Easter, we have a beautiful opportunity to ask ourselves what is missing in our spiritual life and spend time just being with Jesus. He’s ready and waiting for us with open arms.
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