That Losing Feeling

I hope you don't know it well--that gut reaction of "Oh crap, I know I just left it [keys, jacket, wallet] back here; where did it go?" I've had more than a few pangs of this brain-overriding emotion here, but cultural norms have made most of them irrelevant. You see, it's very difficult to lose something here.

Gloves? Dropped one in a crowded street during a festival [will post pictures soon]; it was left to the side waiting for me. Bike? I've left my keys in the lock for hours--on accident, of course--and come back to find it untouched. Passport? An airport staffer ran it out to me when I left it on the counter in my rush to enter Tokyo!

This isn't to say that theft is absent here, or that it's the world's safest country. However, I've been extremely blessed so far. It's also clear that leaving anything in my buttery fingers is dangerous!

It's just my opinion, but I think the Creator of all things and Father of us all has given this Spiritually dark country this ray of common grace in their culture. Jesus said: "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:44-45)

And while we're about that work of holy imitation, maybe we should take the scarf that guy dropped and set it at eye level on the fence. After all, he might be an absent-minded type who will come back for it later.