1. Seek and you will find - when you lose a hamster you look every where time after time. It can be madding. For all the time I have spent looking for this hamster and God reminding me "seek and you will find" Matt 7:7. When you seek after God you will always find Him. What an amazing promise - for me there is no other search I would rather do than one to find more of God!
2. Dust Everywhere - one of the things I have found is how little I spend cleaning under things. Dust collects and lost things gather together.
3. Sunny Side of Life - To be honest when the hamster did not come back I was more upset than my 8 yr old daughter. I found a way to laugh about the craziness that my life was. I mean sitting in the dark for hours waiting for a rodent to show up,not my idea of fun. So I decided to have fun with this adventure. We have spend dinners laughing at the ways we think the hamster has survived. Him becoming the king of the mice or the dog's ability to become a ninja hamster to cover up his crime. Instead of tears we decided to laugh together. Yes we had times of tears and frustration but teaching our child even loss of a loved pet can be handled with joy is priceless.
4. Waiting for a Miracle - One of the nights that I sat on the floor in the dark waiting for the hamster to come out. I started praying. I found myself after 30 minutes saying God if you could bring him out soon I want to go to bed. I started to negotiate with him (like we so often do) then I hear a still small voice that says "how do you know I am not working on a miracle behind the scenes" No the hamster did not come out that night, but my guess is God kept him safe that night and I wanted his return on my timeline. This hamster hunt is reminding me daily that God is faithful and his timeline is perfect.
5. Creativity - finding a hamster takes lots of work. To have fun with it and make it not so deviating for you little one takes creativity. Making it a game and yes prizes can be involved. As a family we have set many traps, found many ways to laugh and used lots of different methods to catch the hamster. (although as of this post he is still at large)
6. God Knows Best - one of my FB friends put this on my page - Just like your daughter knows best and wants to protect her pet, God knows what is best for us and wants to protect us. But often we think we can fend for ourselves and we run away and hide from the very God who loves us and cares for us.
7. Some Humility is Not Bad - We have been out smarted by a hamster for 16 days now. Trying everything from flour on the ground to buckets with ramps. It has been crazy. We have torn apart our cabinets, moved appliances and looked under every inch of the house. I will say I have been humbled, daily being reminded that I am being out smarted by a rodent.
8. Heart of a Child - So on day 15 of the hamster missing we had the "your hamster is in heaven" talk. After it sunk in my daughter replies "I am so glad I took the time to tell him about Jesus" I was stunned. She had told her hamster all about Jesus' birth and used terms the hamster would understand like Jesus was laid in a hamster food bowl and the used a plastic ball to get Bethlehem. I have spent my whole life trying to avoid telling people about Jesus because it was too hard and here my daughter shows me you never know how much time you have with anyone (or any hamster) do not waste the time God has given to share the story God has given each of us, hamster ball and all!
Yes daily this little hamster comes out at night takes water and food out of our traps then scurries back to his new hiding place. Never dull around here when a hamster is on the loose. Until 3 days of no signs of him so we go and add another hamster to our lives meet Chewbacca (Chewie for short). The night after we got Chewie and had the hamsters in heaven talk, Humphrey can out and ate peanut butter from the live trap plus drank water....silly hamster still on the loose!
