"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if
she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek
diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her
friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that
I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one
sinner who repents." Luke 15:8-10
Twenty-five years ago Bernie Squitieri adorned his bride, Carla, with jewelry.
Well, that may not be entirely accurate. I know of only one bauble Squitieri
gave his beloved on that day. Still, that single wedding band was a doozie,
which cost the groom a bundle. And if you're wondering just how much a bundle
is, I can tell you Carla's ring was worth $400,000. To put that into the parable
language above, that's a lot of coins.
For a quarter-century Carla wore that precious ring. She had every intention of
doing so for the rest of her life. And then, one recent Sunday evening, having
cleaned up the kitchen, she took off her ring and put it on some paper towels to
dry. Later, when Bernie went through the kitchen he saw a pile of paper towels
and threw them into the garbage.
On Monday, Carla realized her ring was missing, and together they figured out it
had been tossed into the household garbage. Even worse, the garbage, along with
the ring had been picked up by the dumpster. A frantic call was made, and the
couple learned their ring was headed to a radioactive garbage area.
The trash company was understanding and rerouted the truck to another site.
There the vehicle's contents were dumped and the Squitieris were stuck with the
nasty job of sorting through 10 tons of stinky, smelly, unsanitary, slimy stuff
to find a small ring.
Now my question is how long would you have dug through that dumpster's
contents?-an hour? A day? A week? As long as it took?
Unless I miss my guess, almost all of our Daily Devo folks have picked that last
option. Nobody leaves a $400,000 ring in a junk pile. And if you didn't want to
search for the ring, there are a lot of other folks who would.
Well, folks, now you understand what Jesus was driving at with His parable of
the lost coin: make that the lost soul. So that the lost of this world might be
saved from the radioactive fires of hell, Jesus came into this world and
sacrificed His life so we might be rescued. His third-day resurrection from the
dead says there is forgiveness and salvation for all who believe.
And now, and now He has asked His people to seek out and try to reclaim those
who are lost. As individuals, as families, as congregations and denominations,
the Savior wants us to be the helpers of the Holy Spirit in bringing light to
those who are in darkness.
And when souls are touched by God's gracious hand and won -- down here, as well
in heaven -- there should be great rejoicing.
Just like there was rejoicing for the Squitieris when, after 25 minutes of
digging, the 12.5-carat ring was recovered.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, grant that I may be dedicated in searching for all those
valuable, lost souls. In the Name of Jesus I ask it. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus Lutheran Hour Ministries All rights reserved; not to be duplicated without permission.
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