welcome to my life.

I boast myself as a "random" person, but I feel that we'll reach the apex of my randomness in today's blog. :)

So I love to walk around barefoot--to an extent. I don't like to wear shoes  but I have this phobia of walking around without socks. It took me three years to start walking down the hallway in the girls' dorm in Bible college in just my socks (but without? NEVER.)

Here at work, it's kind of been the same thing, but I don't think it's taken so long. I even got to the point of walking barefoot in our department, but (confession) when I noticed that other people were doing the same thing, my phobia re-emerged so I started wearing socks around the office.

I typically don't wear socks with my work shoes, so I began to bring a pair with me, stuffed every morning (when I remembered) in my purse. And since I'm a stickler for color-coordination, my socks HAVE to match my outfit. One co-worker in the past noticed this, and she found it to be hilarious.

They help keep my feet warm when it gets cold in the office, give me something to walk in when I take the pages back from editing (sidenote: I will ALWAYS wear shoes in the bathroom--phobia, re-emerged times two), and thankfully, they cover up my ugly toenails when they get all chipped or just look hideous.

Aren't they pretty? :)

And since it's getting colder, I placed my footies in my purse this morning and saw them peek out when I opened the car door to walk into the office.

Then, unbeknownst to me, they FELL OUT.

I wanted to kick my shoes off and get comfortable as I started typing out the stories of the day. But one quick rummage through my purse, glances around my desk area, and a trip outside to the front office and back later...they were MISSING.

I was very upset. They were my prettiest socks, adorned (my favorite word right now) with purple flowers--to match my three-quarter sleeved top--against a black backdrop and gray flowers with hints of turquoise. I Facebooked about it and posted it to Twitter at the same time.

THAT's how much it affected me. I had to let everyone know.

I hadn't gotten over it yet, but I was probably in the initial stage of accepting it (you know, the five stages of grief...). I had to head to the Courthouse for an interview, less than a block away. And on this journey, I even looked around for a little soft ball of black. I was gonna find them, whatever it took.

The spot I found my socks at!

After the interview (about 15 minutes later), I walked out of the building, crossed the street, but I didn't cross the second time. I stayed on the opposite side of my work building.

And lo and behold, those four colors met my eyes. I had found my socks!

I was thrilled, elated, overjoyed. (I mean, they were a good pair of socks, no holes, nothing.) But as soon as I found them, Jesus brought a most amazing thought to mind.

He took me back to his parable of the lost sheep, how the shepherd was thrilled when he found the missing one (Luke 15:3-7). First, I've always found it hilarious how shepherds use to lay them on their shoulders (why? can someone tell me?), but his search was relentless until he found it and he called his friends to rejoice.

And then, verse seven came to mind.

"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."

I was beyond excited finding my socks today. But the angels and everyone up in Heaven? ...They have a hey-day when someone comes to know Jesus.

And that, my friends, is a most beautiful reminder from a most random situation.