Have you ever lost something of great value? You placed it somewhere with intention and when you went back to fetch it, you discovered it missing. Maybe it was your car keys, perhaps your cell phone, maybe a piece of jewelry, or money. I don’t know about you, but when I experience disappointing or unpleasant situations in life, I like to go to the Bible and read about others who have walked through similar trials.

Recently, I lost something of great value and after searching for several weeks, I stopped looking and sat down with the Lord in prayer and His Holy Spirit convicted me of some things. When I first discovered my items missing, I began to panic because they were of great worth and value. My panic then turned to frustration and anger. I inquired of others in my house, and no one could help me. They didn’t know the location of my missing items.

Luke 15 tells us two parables of lost items: the lost sheep and the lost coin. Both parables have some things in common.

Luke 15:3-7 tells us about the lost sheep. Many of us are probably familiar with that parable and of course, verse 4 has been commercialized into t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other retail items.

Luke 15:4, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?”

What’s interesting is that the owner of the sheep left the herd to seek the one that was lost. He left all his other responsibilities and went after what was missing. Why did he do that? The first reason is that the owner doesn’t give up ownership just because the item is lost. The second reason is that the item missing didn’t have the ability to come to its owner. The owner had to go retrieve it.

No wonder we identify with this parable as the lost sheep – we are the “one” that Christ comes after, to save! We can’t save ourselves. We need the Shepherd to do that for us.

Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”

This is also true in the parable of the lost coin. Luke 15:8 tells us the woman lit a lamp and swept the house, searching carefully for the lost coin. The coin couldn’t return itself to the woman. She had to retrieve it. She lit the lamp so she could search into the night hours and in the dark places of her home.

Isn’t that just like Christ? He is the light and He comes to find us in our darkness of sin to rescue us. Jesus says in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world.”

How long do you look for something you have lost? Does it depend on the value and worth of that item? Are you persistent in your search or do you give up easily? Luke 15:4 tells us the owner looks “until he finds it.” That’s how long we are to look. We are told over and over in the Bible to not quit and not give up. We look for as long as it takes – until we find it.

How well do you look for something you’ve lost? Do you skim the visible surfaces, or do you dig through the trash? Luke 15:8 tells us the woman who lost the coin swept the house. That word, “sweep”, means to search swiftly, extensively covering an area.

When I lost something, I was tempted to give up because the search was difficult. I didn’t want to dig through the dirty trash. I skimmed the visible surfaces and the easy to open drawers. But it wasn’t until much later that I got on my knees and lay prone on the floor to look under machines and heavy furniture.

My lost item wasn’t recovered quickly and many times I considered giving up and surrendering to the fact that I would never recover the item. But Luke 11:9 reminded me, “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Those verbs: ask, seek, and knock – they are continuous verbs. They mean to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking. Don’t quit. Conviction set in my heart after reading that verse.

In the moment of panic and frustration that ensued in the days that followed, I had forgotten to pray and ask the Lord to intervene on my behalf. Once I took the time to step away from looking and instead diverted my attention to prayer, I was then able to move toward “seeking” – seeking God in His Word and what it says about those who have lost things. And then I was able to move to “knocking” – acknowledging His Sovereignty and that ultimately He is in control and I am not. He is the only One able to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

In the parable of the lost sheep, we read the successful end to the owner’s search. He finds his lost sheep and he picks it up and carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. The owner was proud of his victory, like a soldier carrying back the spoil from war. He was showing off his recovered sheep, like an athlete holding up his winner’s trophy.

He even went so far as to call together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me.” It’s the same with the woman and the lost coin. She, too, calls her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her because she found her coin. It was a call for a group celebration!

Romans 12:15 tells us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

As you read through both these parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, it becomes evident the great effort that went into the search. Why was there so much effort? Because these missing items were of great value and worth to their owners. The loss caused great distress. God is the owner of all He has made. We are of great value and worth to Him and He desires that all would come to Him and be saved.

1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.