-Devotion by Whitney Myers (AZ)
“I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
Luke 15 is Jesus telling three parables about a person losing something or someone valuable to them and finding them again.
One of these parables is about a woman losing one of her ten silver coins. Forgive me if you don’t like history but I’m going to give a little lecture. Originally when you hear about losing a silver coin you’d probably think “oh no that’s a lot of money back in the biblical days. Poor lady.”, but it’s actually a way bigger deal than that. I’m 15 so obviously I haven’t been married yet but allow me to try to connect to you married folk. Back in Jesus’s day when a woman got married she would wear a veil that had ten silver coins sewn into it. These coins served as what a modern day wedding ring or band is now. So basically this woman lost a diamond on her wedding ring if I were to connect to modern day traditions.
My grandpa tells this story: when he was in his 20’s right after he got married to my grandma he was working on painting a house and he took off his wedding band to clean his hands. He put his ring on the bumper of his truck and drove off and later realized he left his ring there. He started scrambling to find it and drove back to retrace his steps and found it lying in the street.
For the woman and my grandpa to lose something so valuable it must’ve been pretty rewarding and relieving to have found what they had lost.
Now imagine how God feels when one of his children repents to him. It’s as though what He had lost had found Him again. Just as the woman rejoices with her neighbors and my grandpa celebrated with his wife, God’s angels jubilate when a child of God repents.
Reflection Questions
- Is there any way in which you have been hiding from God?
- What is the connection between being unrepentant and being lost? What is the connection between repentance and being found? Which causes the other?
- What do you think it can feel like to be lost and unrepentant? What is the true problem with being lost – whether the lost item/sheep/person knows it or not?
- Do you recognize the worth and value in what is currently lost? In what ways can you seek the lost? What do you think God would say is the most loving way to approach the lost? What do they need more than anything?
Prayer
Dear God, Thank you for hearing and accepting our true repentance and for your forgiveness. Thank you for welcoming the lost who have been found into your fold. Help me know the importance of repentance and the value of the lost. Give me wisdom, love and persistence in the way I seek the lost and in the words I speak. May I be like the woman who lights her lamp, sweeps her house and searches carefully until she finds it – and then gets to rejoice with the repentant.
