Following an exhilarating performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, celebrated classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma went home, slept, and awoke the next day exhausted and rushed. He called for a cab to take him to a hotel on the other side of Manhattan and placed his cello—handcrafted in Vienna in 1733 and valued at $2.5 million—in the trunk of the taxi. When he reached his destination, he paid the driver, but forgot to take his cello.

After the cab had disappeared, Ma realized what he had done. He began a desperate search for the missing instrument. Fortunately he had the receipt with the cabby's ID number. Before the day ended the taxi was located in a garage in Queens with the priceless cello still in the trunk. Ma's smile could not be contained as he spoke to reporters, and his performance in Brooklyn went on as planned later that evening.

Even more desperate than this search is the pursuit by God of the lost. We should imitate his passion for priceless people gone astray.