LOST & FOUND

Where could it possibly be? I asked myself in mild panic as I searched for my heirloom watch. My father gave it to me for high school graduation in 1965—a traditional gift in that era. He even had my name and graduation year inscribed on the back. So yes, it was special to me and I'd just recently had $60 of repair service on it. But I couldn't find it. I have about four spots where I put it when I take it off to do dishes or yard work. It was in none.

Could I have possibly (and absentmindedly) tossed it in the trash? I went through the kitchen garbage (which included a broken glass and other “yuck” stuff). I took a “grabber” tool out to the big garbage bin, full of thorny rose clippings, and searched there. Then back inside, on a hunch, to go through my dresser drawers. Third drawer down (my “sock drawer”) I caught a glimpse of silver. There it was.

Apparently I'd stacked my just washed and “rolled/tucked” socks on top of the dresser. (No, I don't gently and lovingly fold and stack socks as though they had personality--like a current “organizer” fad advises.) When I grabbed them to move them to the third drawer, my watch (in its usual place on top) got grabbed with the whole bunch. And there it languished in the darkness.

In my frantic search for the watch I could identify with a lady in one of Jesus' parables in Luke 15. In those days, women wore headbands with coins on them. Brides wore them for their wedding attire, and hung onto them as a “savings account” for dire emergencies. With no welfare checks in those days, those coins were a valuable possession. No wonder she looked carefully, taking an oil lamp to every little dim corner of her house and listening carefully as she swept. It was a big deal when she found it. She didn't have Facebook but she did holler to friends and neighbors to come and celebrate how the lost was found.

By itself it would have been an interesting little domestic story, except for these key words in verse 16: “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Its context is also telling: it's the middle parable of three: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. All highlight the amazing truth that God never loses sight of us, even when we go our confused and willfully wrong ways. Both the shepherd and the housewife asked others to “rejoice” when they found their lost items (vv. 6-7, 9-10). The father of the prodigal son threw a party to celebrate his son's repentance and return.

As I have re-read these Bible accounts, I am struck by the term “rejoice.” Yes, I rejoiced to find my lost watch. But have I rejoiced over others' spiritual turnarounds as much as I should? And if they seem to turn back to God, but then return to old God-rejecting habits, have I remained faithful in praying for them? This was Jesus' compelling purpose: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). Not lost heirloom watches, but lost souls of infinite value.