AT LEAST I KNEW IT WAS MISSING

We went grocery shopping yesterday. It was my first attendance in the shopping arena for a while since I have hurt my knee. I had my list and was willing to stick to it just to be able to get out of the store and back home quickly.

I put most of the groceries away last night but left several non-perishables out on the table. I started putting these few items away and for some unexplainable reason, realized the Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer was missing. By weight and price it had to have been my most extravagant expenditure of the day and my frantic search began. Ron was questioned: “By chance did you take the Adolph’s?” You know the look he returned.

Picking up the Adolph’s and placing it in my basket was memorable because the price had been so astonishing. The debate held in my brain could be remembered as I determined the expense was justified because the seasoning lasts a long time.

I started back through the cabinets, the freezers and the refrigerator, just in case. I searched the empty store bags that had been thrown away to see if I left the small bottle of meat tenderizer in the bag. (By now these bags had coffee grounds all over them making the search more challenging.)

I am always careful not to leave items on the bag carousel in the store so I knew it wasn’t there. I looked in the van to see if it fell out of the bag and rolled under the seats. I questioned myself over and over, “Are you sure you purchased the Adolph’s?” then checked my register receipt. There it was – paid in full like the other items.

Just as I was beginning to move into the realm of “A thief came in during the night and stole the Adolph’s” I spied something red under our kitchen table. A lingering mystery so easily solved. The little bottle had been knocked off the table and rolled to this barely noticeable spot.

And we dare ask ourselves what God does for fun.