Lost and Found

 


Last month while on Hilton Head Island I got to spend some time at the beach.  The tides there are amazing, rising and falling up to 12 feet each day. 

One of the days we noticed a man with a metal detector, combing the beach for lost “treasures,” and as I watched him, I was reminded of this verse – “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” – Luke 15:8

The verse is found in a group of parables that Jesus is telling while having dinner at the house of one of the town’s prominent Pharisees (a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law).  In one, He talks about Lost Sheep, In another – Lost Coins, and then finally, the Lost (or Prodigal) son.

In each of these parables – something valuable, something that was once lost – is recovered.

  • In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd first leaves 99 to go and find the one.
  • In the parable of the lost coin, the woman sweeps and cleans and does all she must to find the coin.
  • In the parable of the lost son, the father who has grieved his loss, spies the son coming back home and goes running out to meet him.

From birth, we are all lost – and we are all searching.  You know it, you’ve felt it!  We spend time, effort and energy searching for that “thing” that will finally makes us feel WHOLE.  Some try drugs and alcohol; some seek status, money and power; some spend hours at the gym, years on diets, money on plastic surgery all in an effort to make themselves more desirable; and some go through relationships, one after another – hoping to find that “perfect person” that will “complete them”.

But the truth is, that hole you feel…can ONLY BE FILLED BY THE ONE WHO CREATED YOU!  And if you’re still searching, then that truth has the power to set you free.

Stop searching.  Turn to God – and when you do – you will see that He’s been searching for you too!

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