As I was sitting in the service on Sunday morning, listening to Casey give a sermon over the parable of the lost sheep, I couldn’t help but think about an experience I had with a “lost sheep” a couple of years ago at work.
It technically wasn’t a sheep; it was a camper that was attending a day camp I used to facilitate during the summer. This camper didn’t want to be there, so when he was supposed to be dropped off in the morning, he hid in the very back of the car instead of coming into camp. We had a field trip planned that day, and during our normal head count before we got on the bus, we came up one camper short multiple times. After searching high and low and having the police come out to help us search, I finally received the phone call almost two hours later that he had crawled out of the back of the car and walked into his house with his grandmother.
I couldn’t do anything but cry tears of joy that he had been found. And this was a kid that I had only known for two days. I cannot even begin to imagine how God feels when those of us that are lost find our way to him. The one that created us has to feel the overwhelming, comforting joy when the lost have been found.
Luke 15:8-10 tells us this:
“Or what woman who has 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls her women friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’ I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
Jesus tells us in this parable that if such a celebration is thrown over one silver coin, that heaven rejoices over one human who finds his or her way to him. My joy of finding a lost camper pales in comparison to one of God’s own children finding the way to him.
Moving forward, I know that I will have a greater desire to celebrate the victory of salvations. Let’s take the time to really think about the rejoicing that God is doing in heaven and mimic that response here on earth. What we’re ultimately celebrating is someone being able to spend eternity in heaven, and that should call for a great celebration.