“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one
coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she
finds it? And when she has found it, she
calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have
found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise,
I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
who repents.” Luke 15:8-10
This past Monday morning, just as my four teenage kids were
ready to head out the door for school, my sixteen year old frantically raced
upstairs to his bedroom, and then flew back down all the while searching for
something. His wallet. We bombarded him with questions, “When did
you last have it?” “Did you leave it in your coat pocket?” “Is it in the car?” “Did
it fall outside by your car?”…along with a gazillion more. He answered as best he could, but because of
the time, we couldn’t do a thorough search.
I prayed with them, ending with, “Please, Lord, give Caleb wisdom to
find his missing wallet.”
I then spent the next hour before I had to leave for work
combing the house, texting more questions, and searching some more.
After school, the search continued. I was consumed by it. After much consideration, we all came to the conclusion
that he either dropped it into the trash Saturday night at McDonald’s or it
fell out in the parking lot there. Phone
calls and trips were made, but to no avail.
My husband was even going to go to their dumpster on Tuesday morning,
load all the trash onto a trailer, and go through each bag. Their trash was picked up on Monday.
Tuesday afternoon, the weightiness of it all sunk in to our
son. He had to go get a new driver’s
license at the DMV. He had to get
another student activity pass from the school secretary. He lost about $40 in cash along with all of
his Christmas gift cards, probably totaling almost $200. I was extremely sickened by all of this.
His consequence was that he had to work Friday and the
following Monday (2 days we had off from school). Thankfully he has a job and is able to do
this.
Sunday morning, as he was getting ready for church, he put
on his khaki pants and noticed something in his pocket. He ran out of his room exclaiming, “I FOUND
MY WALLET!!!”
The relief that washed over me was indescribable. What
was lost was found. My husband and I
immediately quoted passages from the Bible, the parable of the lost coin, the
parable of the lost sheep, the prodigal son, and so forth. Our whole family was ecstatic and relieved.
This incident clearly portrayed Christ’s teachings through His
parables, and made us all aware of how much our Father in heaven cares for His
children, especially the lost.
