Sunday, September 14th, 2025

Everyone has lost something in their life. Maybe you misplaced your keys or phone, a wallet or perhaps a certain piece of jewelry. If you have ever done that, chances are you know very well the frenzied rush to find whatever was lost. And of course, it is almost always done in a frenzy because you need it, whatever it is, right now. And after you have searched the “normal places”, you begin to look in the unusual places. You look in the places where you put something, “so it is safe”, which really means playing hide and seek with the you from yesterday. The more valuable an object is, the harder and longer we will search for it. After all, if something is not important, it is easy to adopt the mindset that it will simply turn up in its own time. But if it is valuable, we will search for hours to find it, and when we do find it, we can’t help but share the good news with others.

Today, we hear two parables about the lost being found. These two parables tell us two things about the nature of God. In the first, the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to find the one that has wandered away. This shows us that God comes to us to save us. God does not wait for us to return to Him in our sinfulness, but comes to us, taking our sin upon Himself to save us. And in the second, we see the value of each person to God in the celebration that surrounds the finding of just one lost coin. What these parables remind us of is that even though we wander away and get lost in sin, God comes for us, saves us, and celebrates each and every person who is brought into the Kingdom. So next time you are searching for something lost, know that you are even more valuable to God than whatever you might be searching for.