I wrote a while back about loving 1976. It was the Bicentennial of our country. It was a year long party. I loved that year and so many things about it. I loved the song that came out about it. I loved the patriotism that was evident throughout the nation. But there was one thing I love most about it.
It is the quarters.
I don’t know how many I have. Several. I used to find them on a fairly regular basis. I would put them back in a special place reserved just for them. I give them to Jan whenever I find them and she puts them back for me.
I thought about this as I was reading from Luke 15 recently. It has three parables in it. Or one if you take all three as one big parable.
I want to focus on the middle one or middle part of the parable. It is about a woman who has lost a coin in her house. She sweeps and sweeps and sweeps looking for this lost coin. Why? A couple of reasons, I think.
First, that coin is precious to the woman. Even though it is one of ten that she has, she wants to find it badly. It is very valuable to the woman. It means the world to her to get it back. She will do anything to get it back.
Second, the coin can’t just become unlost. It has to be found. It has no ability to find itself. It isn’t just going to roll out of the corner back to the woman. She has to find it.
How does the woman react when she finds it? She rejoices. She runs to the neighbors and tells them all about it. She has found the lost coin!!!!!!
There is a huge difference in that woman and me. I wait around for a quarter to show up in the change I get from the concession stand. I look through the change I get from McDonalds. Before I put change in at the carwash, I check to see if it is a Bicentennial quarter. Altogether, it’s pretty passive.
Not the woman. No, she lights a lamp to light up the house.. She sweeps in every nook and cranny in the house. She is very active. She searches high and low for the lost coin. And what happens when she finds it? She rejoices. The coin is back where it belongs. With the other coins. In her possession.
If you read it carefully, you know that God searches for us much like the woman searches for the coin. Except there is a huge difference. The woman searched and searched and searched.
God searched and searched andsearched and sent His son ans searches and searches and searches.
