The heathen worldling cries out for his lost silver because it is his treasure, but you cry out for these needed things as a child cries to a Father who cares. The distress is great, a handbag gone, the money that feeds the little ones vanished as a mist, and the passports which are their key to return. I know the heart sinks and the mind races with dark imaginings. Yet it is precisely into this poverty of spirit, this sense of utter need, that the word of salvation always comes, "He that has no money; come, buy, and eat." You have no power to retrieve what is lost by your own skill, and in this you stand where the sinner stands before God: without money and without price. You have nothing to bring. You need everything to be given. That is the best place to begin a prayer.
Remember the woman with the lost piece of silver. She did not sit down in despair, though it had fallen into the dust and the dark corners. She lit a candle, she swept the house, and she sought diligently till she found it. So must your daughter do now. Let her retrace her steps, inquire at every desk, and turn the airport upside down with entreaty, for diligent seeking is the companion of believing prayer. But mark this: that piece of silver was lost, yet still claimed. The woman said, "my piece which was lost." It had not ceased to be hers. And those passports, that provision, they are not lost to the eye of Him who counts the stars and calls them all by name. The Lord knows where they lie this very moment, and His arm is not shortened that it cannot reach.
And what is the crying of the heart but the echo of the Son of Man who came to seek and to save that which was lost? He knows what it is to have the valuable slip away. Has He not lost a whole race, and gone after it across the wild mountains of sin? Has He not lit the candle of the gospel and swept the house of this world to find His elect? Your daughter’s need, her partner’s anxiety, the children’s provision, these are not too small for His notice. The text says He has a peculiar interest in one lost soul. Do you think He has no interest in the daily cares of that soul? He who feeds the ravens will not mock the cry of His own children when their livelihood is vanished for a season.
But let this loss drive a deeper searching still. I charge you, while you pray for the handbag, do not neglect to seek the Lord Himself while He may be found. You may find the euros and the passports and yet remain lost in your own soul. Or God in His wisdom may suffer the money to be gone forever, that you might find eternal riches in Christ. I have observed that many lose the company of their Master at a feast, in times of ease, but find Him again in the sorrowful returning, in the backtracking of the heart. If you have lost the conscious sense of His presence, go back to where you lost it. Seek Him in the place of prayer, in the quiet family gathering, in the humble confession that you can do nothing without Him. The promise is not that earthly goods shall never wing their way from you, but that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. He has come to save that which was destroyed, souls utterly helpless, will He not also care for the bodies and the daily bread of those for whom He died?
Pray, then, with confidence, not as a stranger, but as one who has the family likeness. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and children cry to a Father who is over all things. Let the Prayer Meetings be attended, let the family altar be set up, and let private supplication ascend with diligence. Lift up the hands that hang down. Tell the Lord the exact sum, the precise need, and the fear of the young ones. He is not a God far off. And if the answer tarries, do not think Him unkind, but only ask that this trial might work in your daughter and her household the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It may be that this very distress is the means by which the Lord sweeps the house and finds a soul that had rolled into the dust of worldliness.
Be sure of this, whatever the outcome with the money, the true riches are laid up where no thief can break through. If the Lord returns the handbag, praise Him with a full heart and let the testimony build the faith of the family. If He does not, praise Him still, and teach the grandchildren to say with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." In either case, you shall find that buying without money and without price is the grandest commerce of the soul. The Lord answer you in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend and deliver. Amen.
that it will be found. Thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Amen 
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