It's a sad life-lesson.

You probably learned it first as a young child.

Leave something out, unattended, not locked-down or locked-up, and it's a pretty safe bet it's going to get stolen.

Depending upon where and when you grew up, this lesson might have been learned later or earlier. But I doubt if there's anyone here today who hasn't had the experience of being robbed of something at sometime in their life.

(You may want to get stories from your congregation of things they had stolen as children or as adults.)

Despite all our sophistication and practiced cynicism, our first reaction to learning something of ours has been stolen is a sort of dazed disbelief.

· Surely, our car is here somewhere. Maybe I just didn't remember correctly where I parked it.

· Well, if my purse isn't where…