I remember
back when I was about eight years old, I went to a high school basketball game
with my folks in my old home town of Delmont.
I did that a lot, of course—I loved sports even then, and my oldest
brother was on the team—but I remember this one particular time for a
reason.
After we got to the game, I did
what most eight-year-olds do at a basketball game. I went off to play with my friends. Eventually the game got over, everybody started leaving, and I
went to find my parents so we could go home.
I got near the exit, where I thought they’d have to come, but I never
saw them. Either they went out a
different way, or I just missed them somehow.
Once I realized that, I went out to
where I knew the car was parked. As I
approached it, I saw the car start to move.
I thought Dad was just playing a trick on me, pretending to leave to
make me scared, but the car kept going.
I started running after it, but apparently Dad did not check the
rear-view mirror and did not see me.
The tail lights got smaller, and eventually disappeared. I had been left behind.
Well, they did not do it on
purpose, of course. When they did not
see me, they figured I’d gone home with my brother. My brother, of course, figured I was going home with my folks. It was just a mistake. I probably should’ve been smart enough to
figure that out, and if I’d stopped to think, maybe I would’ve been. At the moment, though, all I could feel was
fear. There I was eight years old, left
alone on the mean streets of Delmont.
It all worked out, of course. I walked to a friend’s house, they called my
parents, and they came and got me. I
probably got some sort of a lecture about not wandering off, but I really don’t
remember that part. I just remember how
scared I was when I thought I was lost, and how relieved I was when my parents
came and I was found.
That’s not the only time in my life
I’ve felt lost and alone. It’s happened
to me several times at various points along the journey of life. I’ll bet it’s happened to you, too. That’s why these stories Jesus tells about a
lost sheep and a lost coin resonate so well with us. Most of us know what it’s like to be lost, and most of us know
what it’s like to be found, too.
As I was thinking about these
stories Jesus told, there were a couple of things that struck me about it. One of them is how persistently the lost
item is looked for. The searcher never
gives up. In fact, it looks like it
never even occurs to the searcher to give up.
Listen to how Jesus put this:
the man who lost a sheep will “go after the lost sheep until he finds
it.” The woman who lost a coin will
“search carefully until she finds it.”
Think about that. They search until they find it. They don’t just search for a little while
and then quit. They don’t just check a
few likely places and when they cannot find what they’re looking for go on
about their business. They look until
they find it. It does not matter
where they have to go. It does not
matter what they have to do. It does
not matter how long it takes. It does
not matter what else they might have going on.
They look until they find it.
That’s how it is with God when we
get lost. God will look for us, and God
will keep looking until God finds us.
It does not matter where God has to go to find us. It does not matter what God has to do to
find us. It does not matter how long it
takes for God to find us. It does not
matter what else God might have to do.
God will look for us until God finds us.
God does that for the same reason
the man looks for the lost sheep until he finds it, and the same reason the
woman looks for the coin until she finds.
God does that because each one of us is that important to God.
Maybe you wonder sometimes, why are
we that important to God? I mean, God
is so much bigger and more powerful than we are. Why should God care about us so much?
Well, think of that story of my
getting left behind in Delmont. Suppose
I had not thought to go to a friend’s house.
Suppose, instead, I had just started aimlessly wandering those mean
streets of Delmont. What do you think
my folks would’ve done? They’d have
gotten back to Delmont as fast as they could.
They’d have looked everywhere they could think of. They’d have gone to everyone in town to ask
if they’d seen me. They’d have gotten
the police involved. They’d have done
everything they could possibly do to find me.
Well, that’s obvious, I suppose,
but why? Why should they have done
that? I mean, my parents were so much
bigger and more powerful than I was.
Why should they care about me so much?
Of course, you know the
answer. It’s because I’m their
son. That’s all the reason they
needed. It did not matter that they
were bigger and more powerful. In fact,
that made them care about me even more.
They knew I could never make it on my own. They knew I needed them to take care of me. Because I’m their son, they were going to do
everything they could to take care of me.
In fact, all these years later, they still do everything they can to
take care of me, because I’m their son.
You and I are God’s children. That’s all the reason God needs to care
about us. It does not matter that God
is so much bigger and more powerful than we are. In fact, that makes God care about us even more. God knows you and I can never make it on our
own. God knows we need God to take care
of us. God takes care of us through our
whole lives, because we’re God’s children.
Remember, though, I said there were
two things about this story that struck me.
Here’s the other one. The man
will look for the sheep until he finds it, but what if the sheep decided it did
not want to be found? What if the sheep
purposely hid from the shepherd? What
if every time the shepherd got close to finding the sheep, the sheep ran
farther away? Or, what if the shepherd
found the sheep, only to have the sheep run away again?
Sadly, that’s what we do sometimes. We deliberately keep ourselves from
God. And the thing is that God allows
us to do that. God gives us free
will. God will never give up on us, and
God will keep trying to get us to come back, but God will not force us. God allows us the power to separate
ourselves from God if that’s what we choose to do.
It’s such a sad thing when we do
that. It’s tragic, it really is. It’s tragic in the eternal sense, of course,
but it’s also tragic right here on earth.
God wants so much to take care of us.
God wants so much to help us. We
don’t even have to do anything, really.
All we have to do is stop resisting, stop hiding, and stop running, and
let God find us.
If that’s what anyone here has been
doing, why not stop? Why not just stop
where you are, turn around, and wait for God to find you? I’ll bet it won’t even take very long. And if you know someone who’s been doing
that, try to get them to stop. I mean,
don’t try to force them, don’t try to threaten them or anything like that. Just ask them to stop, turn around, and wait
for God to find them. After all, God already
knows where they are. All we need to do
is stop resisting, stop hiding, and stop running. All we need to do is turn around, and there God will be.
Jesus said there is a huge
celebration in heaven and among the angels when just one person who was lost
finally allows themselves to be found.
Let’s find a way to help kick off a party in heaven tonight!
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