Robin Mark shares the story behind Lost And Found, one of the tracks found on his upcoming release East Of The River:

A young guy named David is a member of an 18-25 men’s group that I and my pastor (Paul Reid) teach in my church in Belfast. We usually begin our nights together with some discussion and sharing those things which God has impressed on our hearts the week preceding our coming together.

David, generally one of the quieter members of the group, shared one evening that as he had walked to the host’s home on that particular wet, dark and stormy night, he noticed the reflections of street lights and houses on the wet footpath. The reflections at his feet shimmered and sparkled in the rain and, in a sense, made the ordinary, mundane and un-noticed, something beautiful, striking and attractive. Belfast’s narrow and tightly packed streetscape of old terrace houses would seldom be regarded as something to wonder at under normal circumstances, but in the rain, the lustre of the reflections added a temporary beauty to an otherwise fairly dull scene.

His point, well made, was that it was only in a storm that some of the beauty and “specialness” of life was noticed. And there was the message. As much as we sometimes dread the challenges that come to us when life takes one of those unexpected and sometimes shocking detours into the storm, it is often only in the midst of that experience that we have our vision sensitized to the beauty and reality of God’s provision and blessing.

At around the same time as he shared his thoughts, I’d been musing about the phrase “Lost and Found.” We’d been looking to buy a kitten as a family pet and each night we would scour the “Pets Corner” column of our local newspaper. The columns are listed alphabetically and just before “P” for Pets, comes “L” for Lost and Found!

Lost and Found is the heading of the column that lists ads people insert detailing precious things that have been misplaced and that they hope someone will find and return. Things that are sometimes, in themselves, not special, valuable or attractive to anyone else, but absolutely precious to the one who really owned it. You know the sort of thing, “Lost, one small terrier dog, black and white with only one eye, damaged ear and missing tail due to accidents. Answers to the name of ‘Lucky’.”!

Sometimes, the seeker will offer a reward far greater than the value of the lost item, just to get it returned. Sometimes, to anyone else, the item will have little or no value at all, and yet vast sums of money will be offered for its return.

Occasionally I would glance across and read some of the messages the column contained. “That’s what we are,” I thought. We are just “Lost and Found.” Just like the stories in the ads. Lost People, who may not amount to much in the eyes of the world, but who, in the eyes of our Creator, are entirely and absolutely precious and worth paying an incredible price just to get back.

I took these thoughts and wrote the song. It’s just a celebration of these two things, the reality of who we are in Christ, lost first, but then wonderfully redeemed. And the knowledge that because of the price he paid, whatever storm may come in life, we can be sure that there is beauty, provision and learning in the midst of it.

Robin Mark

East Of The River is currently featured at HearItFirst.ca. Hear Lost And Found and other songs that celebrate the love of Christ.

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