Luke 15:2-10 - Parable of the Lost Watch

Downsizing means sorting the invaluable from the inconsequential. The other night I was trying to find a place for a Russian pocket watch. It's a solidly crafted, Soviet-era piece, given to a fireman as an award for his service. He in turn gave it to his father, a doctor. And the doctor gave it to me years ago in a tiny village, Banishchi, near the River Seym. (The doctor told me the WWII story of a German sniper in the local church's belfry, recounted at  http://banishchi.cerkov.ru/. I saw the pock marks on the building, scars from the war.)

The watch has been sitting in a special place on my desk but I wanted to put it in a safe place while I was sorting through other, less valuable items. Having found a safe spot for it, I got so engrossed with sorting other things that I forgot where I set it down!

You know how it is when you lose something. You retrace your steps, you think of all the likely places where you may have set something down. In this case, I could even remember that I had rewound the pocket watch at 8:45 PM. I went upstairs, downstairs, and upstairs again. I looked in rooms I hadn't entered that evening. I sifted through the trash can. 

People get lost sometimes. Jesus was criticized for being with lost people, for "associating with sinful people--even eating with them!" (Luke 15:2, New Living Translation). Jesus responded to his self-righteous critics with three parables. One parable was about a woman who had ten silver coins. She lost just one of them, but she swept the entire house, lighting a lamp and looking in all the corners for that one coin. When she found it, she invited her friends and neighbors over to celebrate that she found that one, lost coin.

Jesus makes the point that, "In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents." (Luke 15:10, NLT)

Lord, I know that You don't despise our scouring the house for a lost item--whether it's a coin or a watch. In helping me find that watch, You reminded me that there are more important things for which to search: People... especially the ones that others might deem as a lost cause. For none of us is so far gone as to be lost from Your forgiveness and love. In Jesus' name, Amen.