A year ago I graduated from Oklahoma Christian University.  The week leading up to my graduation was extremely fun but so stressful.  I only had a week to get everything done in my college career.  How intimidating was that???  When I finally finished my last final I was relieved.  All I had to accomplish was picking my sister up at the airport and I was done for good.  You would think that it would be an easy task...WRONG!  I had to screw it up somehow.  As I was cleaning out my car to make room for my sister I misplaced my keys.  I searched everywhere.  Under the seats, in the trash bags, on the floorboard...Everywhere.  Except one place... The only place that I had not looked was the dumpster.  


This was not your ordinary dumpster.  This was a mega huge one filled with trash, furniture, random gross stuff from the boys apartments and about 1.5 ft of muddy, gunky water.  It was the dumpster diver's nightmare.  You would not want to touch this with a 10 ft. pole and I had decided that my keys were probably in there somewhere.  As I was cleaning out my car I threw away something and the only thing I could think of is that when I tossed the trash...the keys held on and went for a swim.  


I was devastated.  I tried to climb in to see if I could see the bag of trash that I had thrown away.  I had people looking in the dumpster with me, digging out trash but finding nothing.  I kept searching.  I retraced my steps over and over again only to find that the trail kept leading to the trash can.  The time came for me to pick up my sister so I borrowed Jenn's car and went to the airport.  After picking her up we came back only to search for my keys more.  This went on for hours.  Finally my parents arrived to help celebrate my milestone and Dad was assigned to save the day and find the keys. 


Of course, like any father, mine needed to retrace all of my steps for himself so that he could be satisfied with the looking process.  After searching my apartment and my car, he also decided that the dumpster was probably the burial place for my keys.  After a quick trip for food and a break we went to Home Depot to buy the solution to our problems...so we thought.  We purchased rubber gloves, a flash light, trash bags for our feet and a huge magnet that would pick up anything in it's path.  We were ready. 


When we got back to the apartments and got ready.  We tied trash bags on our feet to keep the water out and put on the rubber gloves.  I was the flashlight holder and my dad was the magnet man.  We climbed into the dumpster and began our search.  We hurdled over boxes, couches and kitchen trash.  We waded through the water and leaves.  We finally got to the front of the dumpster where we were sure that my keys were there.  


I watched as my dad dug through garbage and search through the water not once getting angry at me.  We scared people that came to the dumpster by screaming when they threw in their trash and splashed us with nasty cold water.  We were filthy.  I was mortified but my dad kept on pressing.  He kept searching even when he knew that it was pointless.  He did not give up because it meant something to me to find them.  It was important that I found those keys.  


After searching for what seemed like hours, we finally gave up.  We went inside defeated.  That night I could not sleep.  The next morning I woke up to my dad saying that he had a dream and knew where my keys were.  Sure enough he walked right over to my truck, opened the door and found the keys.  They had been pushed all the way behind the back seat and were impossible to see.  


I look back on this day and I laugh.  I remember the feeling when I lost them and could not find them.  It really made me start to think about God and how He helps us look for our path.  He stands with us and puts trash bags on His feet to keep dry from all of our nasty watery trash in our lives.  He digs through the junk and the dirt in our lives and searches for the solution to our problems.  Even though in the end, He has the answers and He knows the way, He does not get mad at us for needing to look or search for what we think we need.  


He is always slow to anger and always the first to help.  It was so awesome to see my dad being my savior and finding the solution but it is even cooler to know that I have a heavenly father that will dig through the dumpster to find my dreams.  He will do anything for me.  That is an awesome thing to think about.