I was stunned when I was asked 5 minutes before I was due to speak, "You're not doing Devotions on the Prodigal Son are you?". Sure enough I was!!! It turned out that the previous 2 weeks had also been on the same topic, each one of the speakers deciding independently to talk about the same thing : ) My immediate thought was, "What is God trying to tell this audience for the 3rd week in a row? Haven't they been listening!!!" In Luke 15, Jesus tells 3 parables about losing and finally finding something precious. He told the stories because he was being criticised for mixing with the wrong crowd but his motives were, as often was the case, misunderstood. The last of the parables is the Prodigal Son and the first is a story about a compassionate Shepherd risking all to find ONE lost sheep out of one hundred! Tonight I want to talk about the second parable.
On a cold night such as tonight my wedding ring easily slips off from my finger. In 2001, while we were living in England, I had been out gardening all day. At the end of the day after I had cleared up, I noticed that my wedding ring was missing. Frantically I spent the next hour searching madly through every part of the garden trying to find my ring. After an hour and in despair I finally decided to pray. Suddenly I had the thought to go and check in the rubbish bin. When I went outside and checked in one of the bags, sure enough, there was my ring!
A few years later in 2010 I was coaching soccer on the recreation ground as part of the PACT Academy. When it came to the end of the session I noticed once again that my ring was missing. Yes I spent the next hour combing the field to no avail when once more I had the thought to pray! As soon as I went back out onto the field the setting sun caught a golden reflection into my eye and the ring was again found : ) Needless to say I was very thankful and happy both times for the help I'd had in finding something very valuable to me.
Jesus told the second parable about a woman who had ten silver coins but lost one. Maybe they were a family heirloom, certainly they were very precious to her and she spent the next day searching every nook and cranny of her house trying to find the missing coin. Finally she found it again and called all her friends to celebrate with her at a party. I sincerely hope the cost of the party wasn't one silver coin ; )
Throughout this chapter, Jesus was teaching that God searches relentlessly and with great love for those who are lost. Shut the door and bolt it or run away and hide or even just ignore him, He is not going to give up his search until he finds you. The harder he has to look, the more He will rejoice when you are found! If you are running from God or are lost, why don't you give yourself up? You can't resist a Love like that!
