Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.” In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. [Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)]

Yesterday my husband found a plastic Easter egg behind a throw pillow. Perhaps that speaks badly of my housekeeping since Easter was more than two weeks ago; I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to ponder Jesus’ parable of the housewife searching for the lost coin.

When my granddaughter was here for Easter, I filled several plastic eggs with spare change and hid them throughout the house. Of course, she was thrilled to search for her hidden treasure on Easter morning. Once she found the basket with her gift and the “golden egg” (containing a five dollar bill), however, the search for the rest of the eggs waned. Shortly after her departure Easter Sunday, I spotted one egg in a flower arrangement and later that week I came across two more. Even though I knew more eggs probably still hadn’t been found, I wasn’t interested in searching for them. I knew they’d show up eventually. “What are a few pennies and dimes?” I thought. At least they weren’t real eggs that would eventually smell!

Instead of celebrating as the parable’s housewife did when she found the lost coin, I just got annoyed when another egg showed up. It meant that I still had those bothersome coins and had to get out the ladder so I could reach the Easter storage box to stow the egg.

The housewife in Jesus’ parable would never have left any pillow unturned until she’d found the lost coin. She would have looked under every bed and sofa, behind every curtain, and on top of every shelf. Instead of being annoyed when it was found, she would have thrown a party!

Unlike my grandchild, God doesn’t get distracted when he gets a few souls; he wants to save them all. Unlike the eggs, with their varying amounts of money, every soul is equally precious and valuable to God. Instead of grumbling, there is great rejoicing in heaven when one lost soul is found and restored to God.

Father, thank you for the reminder that everyone is important to you and that you celebrate every time a lost soul is found. Thank you for helping us understand that we are seekers of the lost. Let us never give up in our search.

So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” [Luke 15:3-7 (NLT)]