Lost and found

Jesus tells three stories about things being lost and found – a lost sheep, coin, and a son. Why three stories? What do the second and third stories add, that is not said in the first?

In the first, Jesus talks about the shepherd who “loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4). The sheep does not get lost, nor does it find its way back.  

In the third parable, it’s the opposite. The younger son intentionally chooses to disown and walk away from his father. Furthermore, the son “came to his senses…. got up and went to his father.” (Luke 15:17,20)

The middle parable is about a lost coin. As opposed to sons and sheep, coins are inert. They cannot lose or find themselves – they do not even know they are lost.

Put these three parables together, and you get this – in some ways, we can find ourselves; but in other ways, we are unaware we are lost, and God finds us. We are found by God rather than find him. Here are two opposites we need to live inside the tension of – we are both seeking to find God, and we are found by him.

There are times in our life when we go looking for God. We think about our purpose, our calling, and what he might have us do as his children in our next step. But there are other times when God finds us. We are happily doing our thing, and he crashes into our world and inserts himself into the equation. I call this ‘disruption’.

Are you spiritually curious and looking out for occasions where God finds you, even when you are not looking for him? Are you looking for how God is finding others around you, whether they follow him or not? Are you a good advocate at those times?