Luke 15: 1-10b v “Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? “
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. Teachers of the law often complained that he was associating with such sinful people – even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? “In the same way there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine who haven’t strayed away! Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and looses one. Won’t she search carefully until she finds it and say to her neighbors ‘rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ There is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.
When reading a story, we often find ourselves as a character and in Jesus stories we can find ourselves too. Are we the good but overly hard regarding the rules like the Pharisees? Are we the lost sheep or coin? The shepherd or women searching diligently for the lost? The neighbor called to rejoice for the one that has been found? There are always many sides to the simple stories that Jesus told but what stood out for me today was the words, the one. The one who is lost from a large number of faithful sheep. The one coin from saved riches! We are all important in God’s eyes, whether an expensive coin or a poor sheep, and He rejoices when we turn to Him, and angels are joyful. Turn to God today because He is searching for you, the one.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank you for searching for us when we are lost and rejoicing when we turn back to your ways. Amen.
CrossWalk 