The coins felt heavy in the woman's hand as she opened the little box to put them away. They were a reminder of her wedding day. Her parents had given them to her before she got married and she often removed them from their hiding place to relive an important part of her history. They were a reminder of the happiest day of her life and she could almost hear the voices of her parents and envision the joy on their faces as they blessed her on her wedding day. The faces of those who came to share in her special day were also etched in her memory forever.
Daylight was fading as she counted the coins into the little wooden box where she kept her treasures.
She gasped as she counted a second time, one of her precious coins was missing. There should have been 10 coins, but only nine were counted. In her musings about the past, she must have dropped one of her coins. It had to be in the house somewhere. She knelt on the floor and looked about for it, but could see nothing in the approaching darkness, so she lighted the oil lamp and searched again.
She was beginning to get frantic and knew that she had to find her lost coin. It must have rolled across the room or got wedged under a piece of furniture. She got out her broom and began systematically moving furniture and sweeping the floor.
"I cannot rest tonight until I find it," she spoke to herself as she continued sweeping and searching.
Something in the corner caught her eye as she moved the lamp to the floor in order to see better. There was a sparkle, visible only in the lamplight and her precious coin was discovered leaning against the wall. She quickly picked it up and held it between her hands offering thanksgiving to God for helping her find it.
In her excitement at finding the coin, she ran out the door and across the courtyard to her neighbors' home, explaining to her friends all that she had gone through during the course of the evening.
"Rejoice with me," she said. "I have found my lost coin!"
Before we accept Jesus into our hearts, we are like that lost coin. He knows that we are there, because He created us, but we are lost in our sin.
Jesus told His disciples the parable of the lost coin to teach them about entering the kingdom of God. Each person in the world is precious to God, we are as valuable to Him as the coin was to the woman in the story. God searches for those who are lost as carefully as the woman searched her home for her coin. He will turn the world upside down in His search for us and stop at nothing until He finds us and then He rejoices with us when our lives become intertwined with His.
"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents," said Jesus.
“Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she’ll call her friends and neighbors: ‘Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!’ Count on it—that’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”
(Luke 15:8-10) The Message
