The Jewelry Box

Lost and Found

March 2010

At the risk of sounding hyper spiritual, I must confess that my Bible is one of my most treasured possessions. I didn’t quite realize it until I left it in the overhead bin space on an airplane one day. The next morning when I discovered it missing, my heart dropped to my feet. I’d been on no less than 4 airplanes that weekend and didn’t know which one I had left it on much less which cities those planes had gone to after they’d dropped me off. I was frantic as I started calling airline after airline in different cities. Their response was always the same, “I’m sorry Ma’am. We don’t have it.”

I was devastated.

This was the Bible my parents had given me when I was a teenager. This was the Bible I studied from and taught from.  So when I went to the local Christian bookstore to get a new Bible and broke down in a puddle of tears right there in the aisle, I knew I was in trouble. I wanted my Bible back with it’s damaged spine, worn pages and scribbled notes. I prayed that God would find it for me and get it home somehow.

Three weeks later, I was surprised to get the call I’d been longing for. It’d been found. I was elated and determined never to be that careless or foolish again ... not with something this important, this critical and this precious to me.

You ever lost something that mattered a whole lot more than you imagined? A book or a trinket? Worse yet, a relationship or opportunity? Maybe you lost some dignity or a bit of your self-respect because you were stubborn or haphazard in your actions.

Don’t despair. Finding lost things is His specialty and His joy.

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What do a sheep, a coin and a son all have in common? Absolutely nothing, unless they are woven into a divine tale straight from the lips of Jesus. There is only one place in Scripture where He told three parables to make one point. In Luke 15, He is surrounded by the city’s scoundrels and it’s elite. He tells them about a sheep, a coin and a son that all have one thing in common: they were lost and then joyfully rediscovered.

Sheep have a propensity to wander. Any shepherd worth his salt had to work overtime to keep his precious flock in check. And yet, there always seemed to be one that slipped the confines of his careful watch and steered off the beaten path. In its foolishness, it would wander away from the protective covering of the one who loved him. What great concern must be in the shepherd’s heart to leave his others behind in search of just that one. So he’d leave the ninety-nine in search of the foolish one who didn’t even know the danger that he was in.

Lost because of foolishness and joyfully rediscovered.

If the Jewish leaders wanted to hurl a retort for the tale of the sheep, they’d have to wait. No sooner had Jesus concluded his story, he was on to a tale about a coin lost because of carelessness. When a Jewish girl married, she began to wear a headband of ten silver coins to signify that she was now a wife. It was the Jewish version of our modern wedding ring, and it would be considered a calamity for her to lose one of those coins. Jesus asks the crowd to consider if a woman with one lost coin would just sit back and hope that it turns up on it’s own or if she’d begin an all out search and rescue mission to reclaim her precious treasure. I rarely take off my wedding ring but on one occasion I did and my young son got a hold of it. There was no piece of furniture, rug nor appliance left unturned until it was safely back where it belonged. Sheer panic melted into sweet relief the moment it was back on my finger.

Lost because of carelessness but joyfully recovered.

Then there was the son. He was loved and protected by his father and yet chose to take his portion of the estate and live independently. Things worked out initially until He squandered away that which he’d been given. Faced with a less than desirable housing situation and a trough for a dinner plate, he came first to his senses and then back to his home. His Father welcomed him back with open arms.

Lost because of stubbornness but joyfully recovered.

The message of these parables would have been revolutionary to the first century Jewish mind. Never had they considered that there was a God who would seek out and search for the lost. They didn’t think he cared that much nor that He would expend that much energy on one lost soul. And while these parables speak specifically regarding those in need of salvation, their message unveils the heart of our servant Savior to seek out, save and salvage.

What have you lost because of foolishness, carelessness or just plain ole’ stubbornness? Don’t despair. He can help you find it. He can find you and weave a story of redemption that is unlike any you’ve ever read before.

Today is the day for that which is lost to be found.

Lost because of foolishness? Joyfully recovered.

Lost because of carelessness? Joyfully recovered.

Lost because of stubbornness? Joyfully recovered.