Yesterday I had more than a little sympathy for the good woman in the parable of the “Lost Coin” in Luke 15:8-10. I could empathize! Jesus tells how a woman had ten pieces of silver and lost one of them. She didn’t shrug her shoulders and say, “Well, I still have nine others.” No, she lit a candle and swept the house, seeking diligently until she found it. “And when she had found it, she called her friends and neighbors together, saying, “Rejoice with me: for I have found the piece which I had lost” (Luke 15:9). Yesterday around lunch, I looked down at my hands while I was typing and realized that one of my rings was missing. It was the one carat diamond cluster ring that I got as my “class ring” back in the 11th grade. I have literally worn this piece of jewelry longer than any other, including my wedding bands. And all of a sudden – it was gone. Panicking, I looked all over the floor under my desk, I walked the workshop where I’d been. I went out to the car and the van that I drove that morning and searched them. I, finally called Steve and asked him to look on my dresser where I put my rings and see if I’d left it at home. But, alas – it wasn’t there. For about 30 minutes or so, I thought that it was gone forever. Guess where it was – (I know – right where I left it, right? Ha ha!) I found it in my purse in the inside pocket where I had reached in to get a mask to wear that morning. It had been in there for hours, but I didn’t know it.
Sometimes, we’ve lost out on something without even realizing it. People who get high on drugs, alcohol, and lottery tickets don’t know what they could have done with the money spent on such things. They’ll never know the peace that comes from being clean or sober. It may be that circumstances have changed, and we need to make adjustments. Since I’ve lost weight, my rings have gotten too big to wear on the same fingers. If I want to wear my “class ring,” I’m going to have to wear it on the other hand where it used to not fit. We must monitor and adjust our lives all of the time for things do change. This time last year, we never imagined that wearing a facemask would be a normal part of life, but. . . When we come to the realization that we’re lost, we must do all that we can to follow God’s Word and change our lives. We must be like the Bereans, who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
As with the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost boy in Luke 15, we are told “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). I was so thankful and relieved when I found my ring which had been lost. Think of the relief and joy that occurs when one person turns or returns to God. Oh, how we are simply blessed! Courtney
Very good–so glad you found your ring.