This is a story that happened to my mom that was too incredible not to share. Being a writer, she asked me to write the story down in a way that could be shared easily with others, so here it is. Such a truly amazing story that I hope gives you some encouragement and belief in things lost being found!
Story of a lost Bible
“I attended a church convention back in ’83 with my family at Niagara University. All the youth from various churches stayed in the dorms. We had a session and I left without my Bible. When I realized it, my friends and I went back to find it. We couldn’t find it anywhere. I told my youth leader and they reported it to someone on campus to see if anyone had seen it. The announcement of my lost Bible was made at several of the evening sessions but no one had found it or turned it into lost and found. I was upset because I was given this Bible by my parents for my 16th birthday. I decided that whoever ended up with it needed it more than I did & had hoped God would use His word in their life. I think about that Bible occasionally and wonder about what happened to it. And then a few days ago, I received a letter in the mail from someone connected to Niagara University. “I am writing to you because I think I may have a Bible that belongs to you. Several months ago, I discovered a Bible with my late uncle’s belongings. I am assuming that my uncle found your Bible when he was a chaplain at Niagara University in the 1980’s.” She gave the name listed in the Bible and told me to let her know if the Bible belonged to me and if I want it returned.
At first, I was leery of the letter and wondered if it would be a scam of some kind, but she mentioned a Bible and the University where I lost my Bible and the time frame matched. So…I responded to the email she gave explaining how I lost it at a conference there in the 80’s and it sounded like it was my Bible. She sent me a picture of a partial inscription and I cried when I saw my mom’s handwriting and confirmed it was mine.
She then sent me the full inscription where I saw it had been given me by my parents on my 16th birthday. She mailed the Bible back to me and I’m so excited to see it again! I asked how she found it after all these years and how she found me. She said her uncle passed away in 84 and my Bible got packed in a box with other Bibles and papers. They had been given many of his belongings a few months after he passed, but they didn’t go through all of the boxes at the time. She found it in her attic around Easter last year and read the inscriptions from my mom and thought I might want to have it back. She searched for me on the internet and found my name in my mom’s obituary from a few years ago. She tried to find contact info for me and sent a message to a phone number that was listed but never received a response because the number belonged to someone else. She later had her niece search Facebook and found who they thought was my brother and sent him a message. In hindsight, I remember him mentioning he got a weird message on Facebook around that time but they didn’t mention the Bible and knew random facts about us from the obituary so all of us viewed it as a scam of some kind and left it at that. On her uncle’s birthday just recently in January, she decided to reach out again and see if she could locate me and get my Bible back to me. She searched again and sent a letter to the address she found hoping she had found the owner of the Bible. And thus the Bible that was once lost was found and being returned. It is nothing short of a miracle and can only be viewed as a Godwink in my life. How awesome to receive such a precious gift and be able to see and hold this special Bible again. And what an incredible reminder that things that were lost, even if lost many years ago, can still be found. It may not be in our timing and we may give up on having what was lost returned, but it’s never impossible. What a beautiful story & reminder that God always knows, even when we forget. This will be a favorite story of mine from now on.”
theatregirl18 