It was Saturday evening, and Father Albin was digging up an old sermon he liked to use for this Sunday's Pentecost mass. Over the years, he had written many sermons in response to the Easter seasons, as it was his favorite time of the year in the church. This sermon had been one of his favorites, but he had used it so many times he had to start writing new ones to keep the delivery fresh and relevant.

The readings from Acts and Corinthians both spoke about gifts, but in different ways, and from different perspectives. Father Albin thought his insights into gifts and service were relevant to himself and his church. But he also loved the clever way he wove in the story of Jesus' death and resurrection as, what he liked to call, "The Great Gift".

After digging through a few bookshelves, he found the familiar binder he used to keep his sermons in before he had switched to keeping them on his computer. There was something romantic about the feel of the paper, the way it smelled. The emotion it brought back when he opened it and flipped through the pages.

The binder was loosely organized in chronological order of the liturgical year, beginning with Advent in what most laymen call the autumn season. The Pentecost Sunday was the last Sunday of the Easter season. Father Albin thumbed the pages through the various pre-Lent, Lent, and Holy Week times, until he got to where the sermon was supposed to be. He had kept his hand-written sermons in sheet protectors, and there was one empty sheet protector where this sermon had been.

Surprised, he flipped through the binder again, trying to locate the missing document. He checked the pockets of the binder for a loose sheet. Nothing. It was nowhere. He was becoming frustrated. He had a couple of other binders, but he was certain it wasn't in those. So, he flipped through the one it should be in again. He checked each sheet protector sleeve to see if it had been inadvertently slid behind some other sheet. Still nothing. He dug out the other binders, and put them through the same experiment. Alas, it wasn't there.

He sat for a moment. Trying to remember the last time he delivered this sermon. It seemed so long ago. But he was sure it had to have made it back to binder. He sat. He thought. He sighed. He felt frustration and anger creeping up on him.

Stolen novel; please report.

He decided to take a break.

As he sat in his chair, trying to relax, a brilliant thought entered his mind. A few years ago, just before he transitioned to using his computer to compose his sermons, his nephew had helped him by demonstrating how he could leverage the computer for this task. One of his biggest complaints had been that he already had a library of existing sermons, and he wasn't very keen on retyping all of them. His nephew had helped him solve this problem with a digital scanner. He had shown his pious uncle how to use the scanner to scan any page he wanted, and save it into his computer. The software could even translate the scanned image into a document that he could search and edit.

He had engaged his nephew to help him scan all his existing library, but he ended up going away to school before the project was complete. Worse, Father Albin had never understood how to access the scanned documents. He checked his watch, which read 6:32pm. His nephew was in school at Purdue, and he was thinking he might be able to reach him at this hour.

Picking up the phone, he dialed. His nephew answered quickly...

"Yo, this is Nik"

"Hey Nik. It's Uncle Albin. How are you?"

"Hey - Uncle Al. How ya' been?"

"Good. Good. Well. Actually. I have a problem. I'm hoping you can help me."

"Uhh. Sure. What's up? I have to head out soon to meet some friends, but I've got a couple minutes."

"Remember a few years back when you helped me set up the computer? Helped me scan some of my old sermons?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Well. It seems I've misplaced one of my old paper versions... and I'm hoping there might be a version of it in the computer somewhere."

"Mmm hmm..."

"And... well, the thing is, I don't really know how to find it. I know you showed me that one time how to scan them in, and how to find them, but that was a long time ago... and I've, well, I've forgotten how to do it."

"Yeah. Cool. No worries."

"So, you can help?"

"I think so. Are you at your computer now?"

"Give me a minute..."

Within a few minutes, Nik had walked his uncle through the process of searching and finding documents that had been scanned in. As they searched, Father Albin typed in "The Great Gift". The computer spun its wheels for a moment, and then, a single search result popped up. He double-clicked the file, and suddenly, his missing manuscript was in front of him.

"Aw, Nik. That is so great. So helpful. Thank you so much!"

"No problem. I gotta run. Talk to ya soon!"

"You too!"

They hung up. He stared at the screen.