Thursday, September 26, 2013

Thursday, September 25 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 1 Timothy 3; Proverbs 22; Isaiah 53-54.
Today's scripture focus is Luke 15:8-10.

The Lost Coin

“Or what woman, if she has ten [a]silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Well, this parable is basically the same as yesterdays.  When you lose something of value, of course you're going to look for it until you find it.  Obvious, right?  I don't know if any of you have ever "misplaced" one of your children, but my 2nd son went missing at the Niverville Fair a couple of years ago.  A month away from his 5th birthday, and he walks out of the fun house after his brother and a couple of friends had already come out and gone back in again, didn't see them, didn't see me, and decided to go off by himself.  He knew where he was.  He didn't consider himself lost.  He was totally fine.  Meanwhile, my parents, my friend and I are running all over Main Street (and dragging 3 or 4 other kids with us) with pounding hearts and shaking hands wondering how we're going to find him in all those people.  We looked for at least an hour, and I was doing okay up until that point because I just kept telling myself "He's here somewhere, he's on a ride..."  But as the time passed I started to wonder "What if he decided to try and find Grandma & Grandpa's house, thinking we went back there?"  or worse, "What if someone took him?"

Well, obviously we found him again.  I went to check the little kids' rides again (for about the 3rd time), and there he was.  He was completely unconcerned.  He had gone on the Ferris Wheel.  Waited in line, by himself, and got into one of the carriages with two teenagers.  He had a wristband, and I guess the ride operator assumed he was with the teenagers and never asked, and they never said otherwise.  The weakness of relief that I felt when I found him is indescribable, but I'm sure it comes absolutely nowhere close to the joy that God experiences when someone repents.

I like what Mark Driscoll says in one of his sermons:

And he says that God here is like this woman and that we therefore are like what? The lost coin that God is searching for, that God is committed to, that God is devoted to finding. Every time you take out change, currency, I want you to remember, “I’m like a lost coin.” Every time you drop a coin and go to pick it up, remember Jesus’ words. God treats you like you treat that coin. As you pick it up, remember, that’s how God saves you. That’s how God saves me. That’s how God saves us.

It would be a very foolish coin if it was boasting to all the other coins, “Yeah, I picked myself up, flipped myself back up off the floor into the purse.” The other coins would say, “That’s not how that works. We were there. She picked you up.” That’s how salvation works. We sin, we’re spiritually dead. We don’t save ourselves. We don’t know God. We don’t pursue God. God knows us. God pursues us. God literally, in Jesus Christ, he picks us up because he cares about us. And some of us, he’s been looking for for a really long time, but he doesn’t give up his search. God never gives up his search for his people. He searches until he finds them. That’s the big idea of the story.

Yes, the Bible does say "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 19:13), but what about the people who don't know they are lost?  What if, like my little Mason, they know (or think they know) where they are and don't realize there is anyone to look for or looking for them?

How thankful I am that God doesn't wait for us to look for Him.  He comes looking for us.

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Luke 15:11-16.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  1 Timothy 4; Proverbs 23; Isaiah 55-56.

1 comment:

Tammy said...

So thankful that we serve a God who pursues.