Last Fall we moved to an area that I was not all that familiar with, a town much smaller than all the places we’d ever lived.

Yesterday, on my way back to our new home from a familiar place, I missed a turn and wound up in an unfamiliar place.  

Lost. 

I had to laugh at myself when I realized I actually had no idea where I was.  I also know that for myself if I struggle with fixing a problem- in this case literally finding my way home- I will remember the solution well.  If I take the easy way- in this case asking SIRI- I’ll get home but I won’t learn anything.

So, I knew where I had been, and I knew where I wanted to go.  So, I started making my way Northeast.  Along my way North and East, I discovered that sometimes a funny thing happens when you get lost.  Sometimes you find things that you least expect.

One of the things I enjoy most about our new town is all the cornfields. It’s so peaceful to drive the country roads through the cornfields, especially in the afternoon sun at it turns the top of the corn stalks golden.  As I was making my way North and East yesterday looking for home, I found this barn instead.  It stood tall and strong, keeping watch between the cornfields and the beanfields.  My family does not understand my attraction to haybales sprinkled over a field, so I’m sure they maybe wouldn’t feel the allure of this barn, but it whispered to me to “stop”.  So, I stopped.  There is not a shoulder on the road, but there was not any traffic either.  So, I just stopped right there on the road, got out of my car and looked.  It was standing tall and strong in the harsh noonday sun. I decided to find my way back in the afternoon when the sun would paint it with more forgiving light.

So, off I went, north and east, until I found home.

Later that afternoon I convinced Iceman we had to go find The Barn, and we did, but the light was not yet right, so I suggested we “drive around the block”.  That used to mean one thing, but now it means another.  Around the block used to be a quick trip, now it’s a square country mile.  After we had gone “one block”, I suggested another to give the sun a chance to journey west a bit more. 

As we were coming up on the second block, we found something we did not expect to find on a road we’d never traveled before.

Right there on the corner of W 800 N and N 500 W, I saw 3 military markers keeping watch, right between the cornfields and the beanfields.  As we found these sentinels, the setting sun was painting the tops of the corn gold and the beans a beautiful green.  There was no shoulder on the road, but there was not any traffic either.  So, we stopped.

We took a moment to pause and pay our respects to Lindsey Leonard, Thomas Ross, and Thomas Joyce, Union soldiers in the Civil War.  Leonard enlisted in 1862 at the age of 40 and served for 2 years.  He became a minister after the war.   Ross, age 20, and Joyce, age 19, were brothers in law who enlisted July 23, 1862.  Ross was killed in Georgia in 1864, while Joyce died from disease a few months after his enlistment. 

We acknowledged their bravery in enlisting and, for two of them the ultimate sacrifice on a deserted country road in the golden sunset. Then, we finished our trip around the block where we found Old Glory – the flag they fought for- bathed in beautiful sunlight.

I was driving to my new home from a familiar place when I got lost.  And I learned something unexpected.  Sometimes being lost is a good thing.  It gives one the opportunity to step off a beaten path and find something unexpected that you’ve never seen just as I did in finding The Barn and some brave Union soldiers. 

If we can find something new when we are lost, I wonder if we can also find something familiar when we are not sure how to get home. I wonder if when we are lost if it may be possible to find our way back to something we once had, something we laid down, surrendered, or was taken away from us on our journey.  Then, in the process of searching, of finding our way home, we come upon that which was once precious, something that was lost but now is found. 

Something to ponder.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

–The LORD, Jeremiah 29:13, NIV