Lost! Found! Rejoicing!
January 7, 2022

One thing that we all have in common is that we have lost or, at the least, misplaced something that we really needed? Where are my keys?! Where are those eyeglasses?! My telephone?! My ring?! Yes, we have all lost things. And it is not a pleasant experience. First, because we do not realize that the item is lost until we need it. We go to get it from its usual place and then discover that it is not there!

Then the search begins and sometimes we must search and search again looking in the same place numerous times. We have already looked in that drawer or cabinet. But we do not know what else to do so we look again. We try to retrace our steps and just cannot remember the last time we had that object and where we put it. We feel discomfort, panic and possibly even fear. And some of us have had to even breathe a prayer. And then, after searching and searching again, there it is! The lost keys, glasses or whatever it may be is found, and our emotions turn instantaneously into relief and rejoicing.

Lost! Found! Rejoicing! This is the refrain that is found three times in Luke 15. First, there is the shepherd who had one-hundred sheep but loses one of them. Then there is the lady who lost one of her ten coins. Finally, the well-known story of the prodigal son is told. Each one of these parables illustrate the love and concern that God has for lost humanity. We see a glimpse of the heart of God very early in Genesis 3:9. After the fall of man, we are told, Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” So much so, that Luke says the shepherd “goes after the one which is lost until he finds it.” In the case of the woman who loses one coin, she “lights a lamp, sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds it.” And, as far as the prodigal son, the father let him have his own way so that he could discover his lost condition. He had to “come to himself” and say, “I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”

These three parables contain much, but one main point is that we were that one lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. And the voice of the Lord, as in Genesis, is still calling out to man today saying, “Where are you?” We must come into a realization of our lost condition and heed the voice of the Shepherd’s call and return to Him. Then the same refrain that sounded from the shepherd, the woman and the prodigal will also sound from us: Lost! Found! Rejoicing!