Restoration

In 2012, an elderly woman named Cecilia Giménez noticed that a beloved fresco of Jesus in her small Spanish church was flaking and fading. The painting—Ecce Homo, “Behold the Man”—showed Christ crowned with thorns, on his way to the cross. Cecilia loved that image of Jesus. And so, with good intentions and very limited skill, she decided to help by restoring it herself.

What emerged was not a careful restoration but a face so misshapen that the internet exploded with mockery. The image went viral. People laughed. Memes spread. Cecilia, already in her 80s, was humiliated. She wept. She stopped eating. She was described in headlines as a “crazy old woman” who had ruined a priceless work of art.

By every human measure, it was a failure—a public flop. And yet, something unexpected happened. Tourists began showing up. First dozens. Then thousands. Then more than 150,000 visitors from around the world. The struggling town of Borja came back to life. Restaurants survived. Museums flourished. An opera was written. The church became a place of pilgrimage. And Cecilia—once scorned—became a beloved figure.

The painting she botched was called Behold the Man—a picture of Jesus on the way to being mocked, beaten, and humiliated. The Christ who knows what it is to be laughed at. The Christ who turns shame into redemption.Cecilia didn’t plan any of this. But Jesus took her mistake and folded it into a larger story of mercy and life.

Preaching Angle: The gospel does not promise that failure does not get the final word. In the hands of Jesus, even our worst missteps can be made to serve his good purposes.

Grief is a subject that comes up often in Scripture because relationships are a topic in one way or another on almost every page of Scripture. We read of friendships, marriage, childrearing, loss, grief and connection.

Elizabeth Bernstein wrote in the Wall Street Journal about how to cope with losing a lifelong friend.

I recently lost my closest childhood friend. She was an important part of my life for 50 years, and here death left me reeling. I feel as if I’ve lost much more than a good friend. I’ve lost a large chunk of my past, and my future, as well.

I asked grief experts for guidance. They explained that losing someone we shared our formative years with results in a multilayered grief. “It’s like a witness to our lives and history has died,” says David Kessler, an author and founder of Grief.com.

“There’s no bereavement leave, no typical rituals,” says Rebecca Feinglos, founder of Grieve Leave, an online community. “The world expects us to be ‘fine’ in a way that feels impossible.”
Bernstein asked readers of her column how they coped with the loss of an old friend. Here are some standout strategies:

Name your grief. Attempting to stifle your sorrow will just make you feel worse.

• Create your own rituals. Grief needs an outlet. One reader, Peter Hill, held two memorials, a Zoom service after his friend’s death, a celebratory dinner a year later, and Hill planted a Japanese maple tree in his backyard.
• Stay connected. Many readers said that reaching out to their late friend’s loved ones helped with their grief.
• Make meaning. The sixth stage of grief is to make meaning, says Kessler, the grief expert. We choose to live in a way that honors our loved one.

Athletes will tell you that working out is not the most important part of training. Recovery is the number one cause of athletic injuries is the lack of recovery time between training sessions.

Let me repeat this because it’s so counterintuitive—recovery is more important to athletic performance than training is. Your body needs to rest and repair between periods of exertion. By not letting each of the muscle groups rest, a person will reduce their ability to repair. Insufficient rest also slows fitness progression and increases the risk of injury.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This a physical expression of a reality that applies to your heart and soul in serving Christ as well. We could probably predict who’s going to burn out and who’s not by looking at their recovery practices. But most people don’t take their recovery seriously. They’re simply shocked and heartbroken when their soul suddenly gives out. How will you build recovery into your life? What’s your plan?

The knitting needle moves quickly, back and forth, making a pattern. It’s an Instagram video in the fascinating repair genre. Similar clips show rougher work—a stonemason restoring a 900-year-old cathedral, a handyman reviving a neglected home room by room. But in this video, the task is to fix a moth-eaten sweater. In mere moments, the wool looks good as new. The hole has disappeared, the weaving so exactly matched by an unseen mender that some would take to be digital trickery, had they not shown every stitch.

These repair videos aren’t quite honest, of course. They’re practiced and edited, glossing over the less-than- perfect bits, and skipping entirely the discipline and tedium required to master a craft. On a platform that reflects so well our culture’s tendency to seek the easier option, repair videos choose the inverse.

Though we see it most obviously in social media, the consumerist tendency against repair is rooted deeply in our culture and institutions. We often see that inclination in ourselves. Children’s socks get holes, but we do not darn them. We throw them away, alongside so many other products made to be disposable or planned for quick consumption and then obsolescence.

However, repair is not always the right choice. Sometimes things really are broken beyond repair, subjected to the laws of physics, human error, and the desolation of sin. A marriage can’t be repaired when one spouse won’t repent of abuse. We can’t haul up the Titanic and send it on a second voyage.

The tendency toward repair deeply resonates with the story of salvation. In Isaiah 58, repair is a sign of the restoration of God’s blessing, of the people’s reunion with God after repentance from their sin. This theme continues into the New Testament, where Peter preaches that the time is coming “for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago” (Acts 3:21).

A 27-year-old Chinese student studying in Japan was rescued twice from Mount Fuji within a span of four days—after he returned to the mountain to retrieve personal belongings left behind during his first rescue.

According to Japanese authorities, the man was first airlifted from Mount Fuji earlier in the week due to climbing difficulties. After the rescue, he realized he had left behind his mobile phone and other possessions on the mountain. Determined to recover them, he returned to Mount Fuji just days later, despite the clear dangers of a second off-season climb.

On his return ascent, he was spotted over 3,000 meters above sea level by another climber, who alerted rescue teams. The man was again brought down the mountain and taken to a hospital, reportedly suffering from symptoms of altitude sickness. Officials later confirmed it was the same individual rescued days earlier.

Mount Fuji is snow-covered for much of the year and officially open to hikers only between early July and early September. The risks of off-season climbing are well known, and local authorities have stressed the dangers repeatedly. The dual rescue has drawn attention not only for its rarity but also for the man’s decision to return so soon. Though he was not charged with any crime, local officials emphasized the seriousness of the situation and lamented the loss of resources required for such rescue operations.

Hopefully this young man will do a better job of learning from his mistakes in the future.

Possible Preaching Angles:

It’s easy to fall into repeating our mistakes, even when we know better. Ignoring wise counsel can lead us into real danger. But never forget the grace of God, which offers the incredible gift of second chances.

Imagine a savvy organization that does a leveraged buyout and buys a company, and the company is losing money. It's awash in red ink. What does the company do? The takeover buyer knows that this company that it's bought is just full of incompetent management. Management stinks from top to bottom.

So, what do you do? Fire them all? Block them out? Put in new people? Is that illegal? No, the buyers have that right. Is that impractical? No, they have the power. It's smart.

In the biblical story God comes to us. Because he's powerful, he's got the right to blot us out. Why? Because look at the world. It's incompetent. Morally incompetent from top to bottom. He's got the power, so it's not impractical. He's got the holiness. He's got the right, but thank goodness he's also got the mercy, because if he was just powerful and holy, he would do what any good company would do who has just bought out another company that's incompetent. Every head rolls. Fire them all! They have the right; they have the power. It's the smart thing to do. But God's also merciful, so he will restore us. He will redeem us. He'll cut the head off of our sin instead of cutting the head off of our bodies and that's the reason…the hymnwriter said, “for his mercies endure, ever faithful, ever sure.”

Ewan Valentine discovered that his cherished 2016 Honda Civic Type-R—a sleek black car with a distinctive custom exhaust system—had been stolen overnight. Distraught by the loss, he set out to replace it and soon found what seemed to be a perfect replacement.

"Sure enough, I found one for sale. Same color, same year, same custom exhaust system," Valentine shared on social media, explaining how the similarities initially seemed like a lucky coincidence. The car he purchased had a different license plate and VIN, so he didn’t suspect anything amiss and paid over $26,000 for the vehicle.

However, after bringing the car home, Valentine began to notice some peculiar details. "I started to notice some odd things when I got it home. I noticed a tent peg and some Christmas tree pines in the boot. I noticed the locking wheel nut was in a Tesco sandwich bag. I noticed some wrappers in the central storage section. All oddly similar to my stolen car," he recounted. These familiar artifacts raised his suspicions, prompting him to check the car’s onboard GPS. To his astonishment, the GPS history revealed visits to his home, his parents’ house, and his partner’s parents’ house-places only his original car would have been.

Seeking answers, Valentine took the car to a Honda dealership, where a technician conducted a quick test by extracting the physical key.

“The first Honda technician, he pulled the physical key out, puts it straight in the door and unlocks it and he's like, 'Yes, it's your car,'” Valentine recalled. Although a fleeting sense of triumph briefly surfaced, he soon admitted to the BBC, “A part of me felt sort of triumphant for a moment until I realized, actually, no, this isn’t some heroic moment; you didn’t go and get your car back; you’ve actually done something a bit stupid.”

Authorities are investigating the case before handing the vehicle to his insurance company.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Deception; Discernment; Truth - The twist in Valentine’s story in discovering that the “replacement” car was actually his stolen vehicle highlights the biblical theme of deception and the importance of seeking truth. Scripture repeatedly warns against deceit and emphasizes that lies will ultimately be exposed; 2) Redemption; Hiddenness - The story also parallels biblical narratives where apparent defeat or loss leads to unexpected redemption. For example, the resurrection of Jesus, which turned apparent loss into ultimate victory, or the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, where what seemed hidden was revealed for a greater purpose.

Many of us go to extraordinary lengths to avoid learning the endings of films we haven't watched or books we haven't read. We get upset with friends who slip up and spill the surprise ending.

But a study from two researchers at the University of California, San Diego suggests that spoilers don't spoil stories. Instead, contrary to popular wisdom, they might even enhance our enjoyment of a story. The study ran experiments based on 12 short stories. The researchers found that the study participants preferred the "spoiled" versions of suspenseful stories. For example, in one case, participants were told before reading the story that a condemned man's daring escape is all just a fantasy before the noose snaps around his neck. That spoiler alert helped them enjoy the story even more.

Researchers have identified several reasons some of us like to find out what happens in a story before they’ve finished.

In an article for The Washington Post Olga Mecking says some people are happier knowing how the story ends. “After I became a mother, I developed a much lower tolerance for stress and tension. One way I deal with this is to embrace spoilers. If the action on the page or screen is too suspenseful, I go online to look up what happens next and release some of that tension.”

Researchers also explored tension in the 2011 study “Story Spoilers Don’t Spoil Stories.” When study participants were told the outcome of the short story they were about to read, they reported being more satisfied with the overall experience compared with when they read a story unspoiled.

When so much in the world feels uncertain, knowing how a film or a book will end can give audiences a sense of peace and a feeling of control. We don't know what will happen in real life, but at least we can find out what happens in this story.

Possible Preaching Angles:

As followers of Christ, the Bible has many "spoiler alerts" about how the story of our lives or the world will end. Does this diminish our enjoyment of the story? No, the Bible's spoiler alerts can help us "focus on a deeper understanding of the story" and give us peace inside of worry.

Three years ago, Josiah Jackson, then 18, was at Chicago O'Hare International Airport when he spotted a public piano near Gate C17. As a pianist since the age of 4, Jackson couldn't resist trying it out, but after a few notes, he was disappointed. “It was absolutely the worst piano I have ever played,” he recalled. The keys were sticky, and the sound was terrible. “I thought, ‘One day, I’m going to come back to the airport to tune this piano for free and redeem myself.’”

Jackson’s journey to becoming a piano tuner began when he was 15. Although he loved playing piano, he didn’t enjoy the pressure of performing. “I decided to find another career that would keep me around pianos,” Jackson said. He shadowed a local piano tuner and immediately knew he’d found his calling. “I loved seeing and hearing the transformation of each piano,” he said. By 17, he had dubbed himself The Piano Doctor and started sharing his tuning work on YouTube.

In 2024, Jackson finally got the chance to fulfill his promise to tune the O'Hare piano. After booking a return flight from Guatemala, he arranged an eight-hour layover in Chicago specifically to tune the piano. “I decided this is it — I’m going to tune that piano,” he said. He coordinated with an airport vendor to send his tuning equipment to the airport, taking care to avoid any issues with security.

When Jackson saw the piano again, it was in even worse shape than before. “It was in very rough shape… dust was everywhere, and there was a gluey substance under the keys that prevented them from working,” he said. After seven hours of cleaning and tuning, however, Jackson ended up played “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a piece that inspired his love for piano. He said, “Even with a quick tuning, the piano actually sounded really good.”

The restored piano has since brought joy to travelers. Jackson’s YouTube video, where he shares his piano restoration process, has garnered thousands of positive comments. "I’m thrilled that people are playing the piano again," he said, proud that his effort brought music back to the airport.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Restoration; Renewal - God spares no time or effort in lovingly restoring those who are damaged and neglected. 2) Gifts; Spiritual Gifts - God is honored when we take the initiative to use our gifts in greater service to the public.

After losing his dog for 19 days, one Utah man turned heartbreak into action, using cutting-edge drone technology to help others.

Keith Anderson’s pup Oliver went missing in the Unitas last summer. The search felt overwhelming; he described it as “like losing a family member.” Throughout the search, many suggested using a drone with a thermal camera to help locate Oliver. However, Keith found it nearly impossible to find anyone locally who had such equipment. Eventually Oliver was found with the help of a trapper and the community, but the experience left Keith determined to ensure others wouldn’t face the same challenges.

Motivated by his ordeal, Keith invested in a $7,000 drone equipped with thermal detection technology to assist others in finding their missing pets. He explained, “It’s pretty easy to quickly confirm what you’re looking at and the shape and movement of a dog.” Armed with an FAA license, Keith now volunteers his drone services across Utah, helping families locate their lost pets.

Keith said, “It feels really good to help people out with something like this because it’s not easily accessible to everyone.” However, Keith emphasizes that the drone is just one part of the equation. Successfully finding a missing pet often requires a collective effort from the community, combining high-tech solutions with teamwork and perseverance.

Through his dedication, Keith is turning his personal loss into a lifeline for others, proving that technology and compassion can make all the difference in reuniting families with their beloved pets.

Possible Preaching Angle:

So also, God seeks the lost with compassion and diligence. God often redeems our pain and loss by shaping us into instruments of compassion and service, using our suffering to bless those around us.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon asked an unusual question to attorney Janet Hoffman during the sentencing phase of a recent case. “Do you want me to refer to your client as Mr. Pearce, Mr. Doe or Mr. Casper?”

Normally a defendant’s name is one of the first established facts in a criminal proceeding, but in this case, it was a mystery behind the whole thing. Hoffman’s client was a well-known attorney who went professionally by the name Roger A. Pearce Jr. He had spent more than three decades practicing law in Oregon and Washington. Now, at age 77, he was living a comfortable life, having retired with his wife to a million-dollar condo on Lake Washington in Seattle. But recently authorities discovered that he’d been living a lie. Roger A. Pearce Jr. was not his legal name.

The ruse was discovered in 2022 when the State Department flagged his passport application because he applied for a new social security number as an adult. So, prosecutors indicted him as “John Doe,” after he was arrested on a warrant. After pleading guilty to misdemeanor identity fraud, the judge asked his courtroom deputy to have the defendant state his name for the record.

He said, “My birth name was Willie Ragan Casper Jr.” Casper, a.k.a. Pearce, explained that he went to college at Rice University in Texas, but made a series of poor choices, dropping out of school, then quickly marrying and splitting apart. In desperation, he engaged in petty theft and check-kiting schemes.

He said, “I was a young person, confused, depressed. I felt the failure. I was ashamed that I had wasted a lot of my parents’ money supporting me in a distant city they couldn’t really afford. My marriage had fallen apart. I had no real career prospects.”

So, he illegally changed his name as a way of finding a fresh start. He purchased the birth certificate of a baby who’d died, then used that certificate to apply for a social security number.

Assistant U.S. attorney Ethan Knight said, “Every person is responsible for and owns their own history and really the shadow that that casts and the consequences that ultimately may bear out. The defendant’s choice in this case really is an abdication of that basic principle.”

The defendant intends to legally change his name to Roger A. Pearce Jr. and resume the remainder of his years under that name. He also has a chance to mend old fences with the family he left behind so many years ago. He said, “Perhaps paradoxically, this prosecution may give me the chance to recover some of what I’ve lost.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Identity in Christ - While the defendant sought to create a new identity for himself through deception, the Bible teaches that true identity and renewal come through faith in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17); 2) Forgiveness; Second Chance - The story suggests the possibility of forgiveness and a second chance (Lam. 3:23;1 John 1:9); 3) Accountability - The prosecutor's statement about owning one's history and facing consequences illustrates personal accountability (Rom.14:12).

During an office hiking retreat in Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, an unnamed worker was rescued after being abandoned by his colleagues on Mt. Shavano, a 14,230 feet mountain. The incident occurred after a group of 15 hikers split into two teams: one headed to the summit while the other ascended to a saddle area before turning back.

While 14 of the hikers descended safely, the unnamed person continued to the summit, reaching it around 11:30 a.m. However, he became disoriented on his descent. His colleagues, already on their way down, inadvertently collected markers that were left to help guide the descent. This confusion left the man struggling to navigate the steep boulder field on the northeast slopes of the mountain.

Using his cellphone, the hiker pinned his location and sent it to his team, who advised him to return to the summit to find the correct trail. Shortly after receiving this advice, a severe storm with freezing rain and high winds struck, disorienting him further and losing cellphone signal in the process.

When he failed to check in, his colleagues reported him missing at 9 p.m., approximately eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent. A search was immediately initiated but was hindered by harsh weather conditions that affected both ground searches and aerial drone operations.

The following morning, the missing hiker managed to regain some cellphone service and called 911. Rescue teams, who had been searching through the night, were then able to locate him in a gully near a drainage creek. He was airlifted to a hospital, where he was found to be in stable condition.

The hiker reported falling at least 20 times and expressed his gratitude for being able to call for help despite his dire situation. Rescue officials noted that his recovery was fortunate given the challenging circumstances.

Possible Preaching Angle:

No matter what mistakes we’ve made or how we’ve been mistreated by others, God will never leave us or forsake us. Even when God chooses not to deliver immediately, he will walk with us and enable us to endure our moments of trial.

How do you make sense of the problem of pain and the wonder of beauty occurring in the same world? If you’ve ever had the privilege of visiting the Louvre in Paris, you probably braved the crowds to get a glimpse of the statue of Venus de Milo.

Millions have been captivated by the woman’s physical beauty displayed in stunningly smooth marble. They’ve also been disturbed by seeing her arms broken off. Somehow the damage done to her arms doesn’t destroy the aesthetic pleasure of viewing the sculpture as a whole. But it does cause a conflicted experience—such beauty, marred by such violence.

I doubt if anyone has ever stood in front of that masterpiece and asked, “Why did the sculptor break off the arms?” More likely, everyone concludes the beautiful parts are the work of a master artist and the broken parts are the results of someone or something else—either a destructive criminal or a natural catastrophe.

We need a unified perspective on created beauty and marred ugliness that can make sense of both. The Christian faith provides that. It points to a good God who made a beautiful world with pleasures for people to enjoy. But it also recognizes damage caused by sinful people. Ultimately, it points to a process of restoration that has already begun and will continue forever.

Imagine an old European city with narrow cobbled streets and storefronts as old as the city itself. One of those weathered storefronts has a sign hanging over the door: The Mercy Shop. There's no lock on the door because it's never closed. There's no cash register because mercy is free.

When you ask for mercy, the Owner of the shop takes your measurements, then disap­pears into the back. Good news—he's got your size! Mercy is never out of stock, never out of style.

As you walk out the door, the Owner of the Mercy Shop smiles, “Thanks for coming!” With a wink, he says, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The writer of Lamentations said that God's mercies are "new every morning" (Lam. 3:23). The Hebrew word for "new" is hadas . It doesn't just mean "new" as in "again and again," which would be amazing in and of itself. It means "new" as in "different." It means "never experienced before." Today's mercy is different from yesterday's mercy! Like snowflakes, God's mercy never crystallizes the same way twice. Every act of mercy is unique.

Britain's so-called "loneliest sheep," which was stuck at the foot of a remote cliff in Scotland for at least two years, has been rescued. Cammy Wilson, who led the rescue mission, said it was a risky one. That's why, despite past attempts by others, the sheep had been stuck for so long.

The sheep was first discovered in 2021, on the shore of the cliff in Brora by kayaker Jillian Turner. Photos show the sheep at the base of the cliff surrounded by steep rock on one side and water on the other.

In October of 2023 Turner said she has spotted the sheep several times since and the sheep hasn't been able to move off her spot on the base of the cliff. Turner said, “It is heart-rending. We honestly thought she might make her way back up that first year.”

Wilson, runs a Facebook page called "The Sheep Game" that chronicles his life as a farmer. After another farmer brought the sheep to his attention, he named the sheep Fiona and continued to give updates about her on Facebook.

Wilson then had an exciting update for followers. He and four others used a winch, a mechanical device that can act like a pulley, to get to Fiona. One person stayed at the top of the cliff, while the others traveled about 820 feet down the cliff to get to her.

In a statement, the Scottish SPCA said the group was notified of the rescue. Scottish SPCA said, "Our Inspector checked over the sheep and found her to be in good bodily condition, although needing sheared. The ownership of the sheep then was handed over to Dalscone Farm, a tourist attraction in Edinburgh with activities for children.

You can view pictures of the sheep and the cliff here.

When a tornado hit Lamar County, Texas, Dakota Hudson and Lauren Patterson feared they would not survive. Hudson said, “We could feel the house start lifting up around us. We could hear the creaking and breaking.”

When the couple emerged from their bathroom, everything around them was destroyed, including their home, a family member’s house next door, and all their neighbors' homes. Hudson said, “God had his hand over our entire community. Looking at this destruction it’s hard to fathom how anyone could survive it.”

As the couple began checking on neighbors and learned everyone was physically OK, Hudson realized the engagement ring he’d just purchased to surprise Patterson was lost in the debris. He said, “Needle in a haystack doesn’t come close to what we were looking for.”

That is until the Paris Junior College softball team stopped by the property to offer help cleaning up. Once the team heard about the missing ring, they got to work. Outfielder Kate Rainey said, “I basically made my mind up. I was going to find the ring.” Rainey and her teammates searched for hours until she spotted a little miracle buried in the mud.

Though it wasn’t the proposal he had planned, Hudson decided there was no better moment to pop the question. Covered in mud, he dropped to one knee, surrounded by debris and with a team of softball players cheering him on. “We’re safe. We’re here. Everybody’s alright. It’s a miracle the ring was found. What better time to do it?” Hudson said. Patterson said “yes” immediately. “This was the light in a very dark moment. And it is still a dark moment, but this has given us reason to breathe and smile a little.”

The couple stayed in a hotel until they determined their next steps. They hope to rebuild on the same property and say they are extremely grateful for the love and support they’ve received from the community during this challenging time.

The way Brett Hollins looks at things, the worst thing that happened to him was also the best thing that could’ve happened for him. Back in 2016, Hollins was a 21-year-old reservist with the Marine Corps visiting with some friends at a party on the Southern Oregon University campus when a fight spiraled out of control.

Hollins said, “I really did try to de-escalate it.” At the bottom of the dogpile, Hollins was being kicked in the head and was afraid he would pass out. He grabbed the only thing he thought could help him – a knife in his pocket from an afternoon unboxing furniture—and used it to stab two of the men. Both men recovered from the stabbing, though one was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

The U.S. Marine Corps investigated the incident and concluded that the stabbing had been self-defense. Nevertheless, Hollins was eventually convicted of third-degree assault and served six years in prison.

During his incarceration, he turned to the only activity that regularly provided a sense of joy and focus—basketball. Brett played a season of college ball before his conviction, and he was determined to play it again after his release. When he wasn’t playing the game in the yard, he spent time writing letters to college coaches, trying to pave his own way toward an opportunity on the outside.

Wayne Tinkle was one of those coaches, and he recalled being impressed with the content of Hollins’ letters—the contrition and humility, but also the determination to find a way forward. “I know you’re a man of character,” Tinkle wrote back to Hollins, “and that’s going to take you really far in life. So, don’t let this setback change the way you view yourself.” Tinkle eventually told him that per NCAA regulations, he was too old to play Division I basketball, but he still wanted to help Hollins pursue his dream.

Through Hollins’ steadfast letter-writing campaign and Tinkle’s advocacy, he began getting responses from various college basketball programs. As it turned out, the dream manifested in the very place where his life took such a drastic detour. Hollins is now a 29-year-old senior captain for the Southern Oregon University basketball team, living out a dream that he’s been chasing for close to a decade.

As his senior season winds down, Hollins is filled with gratitude for where he’s been and the possibilities for where he might go next. He said, “If you can find a way to use it to develop your own character, you can see some amazing things come out of terrible situations.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God will use our places of deepest pain to bring healing and wholeness to ourselves and others. It’s only in sharing honestly about our struggles and mistakes that we can find God’s redemptive power.

In a remarkable twist of fate, a couple from Bowling Green, Kentucky experienced the rare joy of winning the lottery twice—first by winning the prize and then by finding their lost ticket.

In November, the Kentucky Lottery announced that Mark Perdue and his wife were the winners of $50,000. Mark Perdue recalled the moment when he realized he won, recalling the store owner's words of congratulations.

“I said, ‘For what?’ And she said, ‘You won the lottery.’ I said, ‘I wish.’ She said, ‘You did, I have you on video.’”

However, the Perdue’s rejoicing turned to despair when they couldn’t find the ticket. Despite their best efforts, the ticket remained missing for several days, leading them to believe it had been accidentally discarded. His wife said, “I’ve been beating myself up for three months thinking I threw this ticket away.”

However, the story took a fortunate turn three months later in February. Mark was inspecting a company car, and found the ticket. He rarely does such inspections, but a visitor needed transportation, which prompted it.

“I don’t know how long it might have sat out there if I hadn’t needed the car,” he mused. The discovery left him visibly shaken.

With the ticket finally in hand, the couple visited the lottery headquarters the next day, and received a check for $36,000 after taxes. Reflecting on their plans for the money, the couple expressed a desire to clear debts and perhaps celebrate their good fortune with a trip.

Possible Preaching Angle:

You should use caution in using this illustration because it is not intended to encourage anyone to play the lottery. But, this does illustrate the elation of those who find what they believe was irretrievably lost, such as woman who found the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10).