Found It!

Last week Christy was in the kitchen when she heard Anna shout from the bathroom, “Mom, I’ve got your wedding rings!” She tore through the house towards Anna in a flash… she had taken her rings off to put some lotion on and Anna picked them up off of the sink. When she rounded the corner, she saw a tiny glint of metal fly toward her from Anna’s hand. It was the engagement ring. It hit Christy and fell to the ground. After picking it up, she looked at Anna and said, “Honey, where’s the other ring?” “I don’t know,” Anna replied, “I threw it.” “Where did you throw it?” “I don’t know.”

When Christy called me to tell me the news, I knew instantly that it was time to come home. We didn’t know where to look and we were about to be late for this thing, so I just grabbed the kids and got them out of the house so Christy could look for her wedding band in peace. When I first got home I had tried to comfort her by saying that the ring was just a ‘thing’ and that even if it was gone, it didn’t mean anything about our marriage or any of that stuff, but all my consolation was immaterial. Of course the loss of a ring wouldn’t nullify our marriage… that wasn’t the point! The ring meant something to her… it wasn’t foundational, it was sentimental. It was important to her heart.

The second story Jesus told in Luke 15 is about a woman who lost a coin. It was one of ten silver coins she had, but it wasn’t just money she had lost… scholars tell us that in their culture, these ten drachma coins together represented a woman’s dowry, or the gift of the bride’s family to the bridegroom. It was kind of like their wedding ring. Losing one of these ten coins wasn’t like losing ten bucks or even a hundred dollar bill, it was like losing the wedding band. It wasn’t about value, it was about sentiment… feelings. Jesus said, “Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”

Christy found her wedding band in just a few minutes, but couches were moved, cushions were tossed and surfaces upturned until that magical moment of discovery. She would have torn the house apart to look for it because it meant so much to her. The engagement ring by itself was not enough. The two had to be together. That’s the way Jesus feels about people. He won’t rest until He has the hearts of everyone who will be His. We don’t always feel such urgency when it comes to reaching out… especially when it involves people we don’t like, people we don’t get and people who get on our nerves. Truth be told, we often think this whole family of God would be better if they weren’t in it, but He’s lighting lamps and sweeping corners in the middle of the night… not resting until He finds them.

Why? Because nine coins isn’t enough… all ten have to be there in order for it to be complete. And its not about the money… it’s not about what value we might represent to Him. It’s all about His heart for us and everyone else (even the folks that we don’t think belong). He just loves us. He loves us as well as the people we don’t love and His heart is not satisfied until we’re all found and together.