Searching and Celebrating

READ: LUKE 15:1-24

I adored the cowboy boots Papa bought me at the feed store. But running in them for gym class had gotten difficult. I just had to find my missing purple sneakers; they were my only other shoes appropriate for school. Now, if I could only remember where I’d left them.

For almost two weeks, I searched our house. I looked in our truck, around my grandparents’ home, everywhere I imagined the shoes might be. Then, one day at the end of dance class, I gathered my belongings to go home. Suddenly, I spotted a flash of lavender under my classmate’s coat. Could it be? There, in the corner of the drafty old building where I met weekly for dance class, I located my missing sneakers. My long-absent and much-loved shoes had been found! Happy and relieved, I tossed them into my dance bag, eager to tell my mother the good news.

I had a story to tell about shoes that had been lost and then found. In the Bible, Jesus uses “lost and found” stories to teach us truths about His commitment to rescuing us. In three parables—about a lost sheep, a missing coin, and a son who abandoned his family—Jesus makes it clear that He cares, not just about the many, but the one. As a good shepherd, Jesus values each of His sheep, and He will search for us intently (John 10:11). God rejoices when we are found, when we—like a runaway kid who finally returns to the family— come home to our loving Father.

Through all these “lost and found” parables, we see how Jesus pursues us, searches for us. And when we turn to Him as our Savior and Lord, we receive forgiveness and eternal life, and our heavenly Father celebrates that we have returned to Him and His love. • Allison Wilson Lee

• Have you ever searched for something that was lost, and then when you found it, you were so happy you wanted to tell people?

• Have you ever stopped to think about how God celebrates when just one person returns to Him and begins a relationship with Him through Jesus? What can this truth reveal about God’s love for us? (Psalm 18:19)

“‘…let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:23-24 (CSB)