Lost Things

This week I thought about some of the parables that we talked about in my New Testament class. Jesus taught three parables that are good to compare. They are the Parables of the Lost Things.

The first parable is of the Lost Sheep and the remaining 99. A shepherd had 100 sheep. One day he found that one of them had wandered off. Because of his love for each of his sheep individually, he left the 99 together and went searching for the one that had gotten lost.

The second is the parable of the Lost Coin. A woman had ten gold coins that were very precious to her. She found that one was lost, so she cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, looking in every corner until she finally found it and was happy.

The final parable of the three is about the Son of Perdition. A man had two sons. The younger of the two decided that he wanted his living now, instead of waiting for tradition when a son got his inheritance after the death of his father. His father allowed him to do so, so the young son took his portion early and left into a faraway land. He wasted his money away quickly, basically partying for a little while until he was completely broke. Once he had no money left, he had no choice but to wander around looking for work. There was a famine and he was very hungry. He finally found a job feeding pigs, and wished that he could eat the scraps that he fed them. Eventually he realized that his father’s servants lived better than he did, so he decided to return home disgraced and beg to be his father’s servant. As he got close to his father’s house, his father saw him and ran out to get him, embracing him as they met. He was so happy that his son had decided to come home that he threw a big party to celebrate.

So here is the question. How did each thing get lost?

Sheep make decisions, but they aren’t really capable of making elaborate plans. They don’t consciously decide they don’t want to belong to the fold. They just do what sheep do: put their heads down and eat. Sometimes they get so busy doing what sheep do that when they eventually look up after focusing on only the few feet of grass in front of them that they find themselves all alone, far away from the herd.

What about coins? Coins don’t think at all. It wasn’t the coin’s fault it got lost. The woman accidentally misplaced it, didn’t watch out for it, perhaps even neglected it. Once lost, there wasn’t really anything the coin could do to be found. All it could do was wait in darkness and dust for the woman to realize it was gone and frantically look for it.

Finally, what about the son? Well, the son could definitely make plans. The son willfully rebelled against his father. He took a large portion of his father’s estate, what his father had spent a lifetime working for, and wasted it within days. He really was a rebel.

So what do we learn from these stories? Two things. Be careful how you judge lost things. Be careful how you find lost things.

Not all lost things are consciously lost. Sometimes they are just busy doing what busy people do, and eventually find that they have lost their way. They didn’t mean to do anything wrong. And sometimes lost things don’t have much say in the matter. They might have been forgotten without many options of being found, like children for example. If children aren’t watched over, when they become a lost teenager we need to be careful in giving up when they wander. Sometimes though, they really are a rebel, and we need to know the difference.

When you try to find lost things, make sure you find them the way that they can be found. Coins and sheep need to be looked for with diligence, sometimes sacrificing other things in order for them to be located. Rebels though are different. They often need space and to feel the weight of their own decisions. Looking for them just pushes them away. But when they do come home, they need all the love and celebration that was given for the found coin and rescued sheep.

Also remember, we are all capable of being coins, sheep, and rebels. Make sure you do everything you can to be an agent to yourself, try not to be a coin waiting at the mercy of others. Take control of the decisions that you can make. Be careful of not being a sheep! Don’t get so busy doing what busy people do that you will be in danger of looking up and finding yourself lost. And do your best to not be a rebel. Really try to understand what happy, successful and experienced people are trying to tell you, and wait patiently for everything to make sense.