A few days before Christmas, a California woman was joyfully reunited with her past. After 28 years Lynda Alsip had her stolen classic forest green 1967 Mustang returned. The Department of Motor Vehicles office was alerted when a man attempted to register the stolen vehicle. The DMV office sent the case of the untraceable car to the California Highway Patrol, where Officer Christopher Menchen dug into the records, and his search paid off. The officer located Alsip's stolen record report from 1986 and connected the Mustang to it's registered owner.

In her exuberance Alsip said, "I thought I would never see it again. It's like winning the lottery. It happens to very few people and for it to happen to me, it's just an amazing feeling." She bought the car for $800 in 1985 when she was 17 years old. About a year later it was stolen outside her Salinas apartment. One reporter dubbed it the best Christmas gift ever.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) God's grace; Pursuit of sinners; Evangelism; Witnessing—God works to reconcile people back to himself, so we should be involved in the same work of reconciliation. (2) Christmas; Christ, birth of—Even as exciting as this reunion was, we must never forget that God has given all of humanity the greatest gift possible. Paul says, "Now thanks be unto God for his most indescribable gift" (2 Cor. 9:15).