LOST

Lost.

Remember that TV series back about ten years ago -- where a bunch of people survived an airliner crash - except for the ones who didn't - and ended up on a deserted island in the South Pacific?  I was able to follow it for the first 22 minutes - after that I was the one who was lost.

Lost things matter.  Lost people matter.

Jesus tells three stories about lost things.

He tells about someone charged with a hundred sheep who loses one.  He was so concerned about that one that he left the 99 in open country and went on an all out search mission to find the one that was lost.

He tells about a woman who lost one of ten coins - and since she only had ten, it was a tenth of her estate - so she lit every candle in the house to begin a painstaking sweep until she found it.

He tells about a father who lost a son.  The son asked for his inheritance long before it was due and went off and spent it all.  In great shame and disgrace he returned home, not knowing if his father would welcome him.  But his father had been watching - all that time - and he embraced his son, kissed him, put a ring and a robe on him and prepared a feast in his honor.

In those stories Jesus makes it clear what His mission on this planet was about - and what ours is to be about as well.  In all three stories what was lost mattered deeply to the one who lost it.

The one sheep mattered to the shepherd.
The one coin mattered to the woman.
The son mattered to the father.  Nothing mattered more.

The greater value of the lost item, the more desperate the search.

Have you ever had a time when you were out somewhere - a store - the mall - a park - and all of a sudden you couldn't find your child?  That's total panic time, isn't it?  You seldom experience that kind of sheer terror.

Remember what happened when you found him or her?  Maybe you were upset, sure, but you also grabbed him and held on like you'd never let go.  We couldn't have pried that child from your arms if we'd tried.

That's the heart of God for you.  He's completely taken with you.  He's completely occupied by you.  He's completely obsessed by you.  The heart of the Father is in ongoing, non-stop, permanent search mode for His children.

You're His missing son and daughter - and He wants nothing more than for you to come home.

And be blessed.