Luke 15 - When to do a search and rescue?

"Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!" {Luke 15:1–2, New Living Translation, 2015}

That introduces three parables to illustrate a common theme:
God rejoices when sinners return to Him (verses 7 & 10). 

(1) There's an animal. A sheep that wandered off from the flock.
Some people don't start out planning to sin, they foolishly drift into it.
(2) There's a coin that was lost, an inanimate object.
No explanation is given for how it happened.
(3) Lastly, there's a human: a son that chose to leave home of his own free will.

In the first two parables, someone did the rescuing:
The shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to find the one that was lost.
The woman with nine silver coins tore her house apart to find the tenth one.

But then there's the Prodigal Son...
When the son left home, his father not only let him go, he gave the son half of the family fortune, probably knowing very well that it would finance the son's "wild living."
Rather than rescuing the prodigal son, the father stayed home.

Eventually the son came to his senses.
"{The son} returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." {Luke 15:20, NLT}

How many times during the day did the father glance down the road to see if his wandering son was coming home again?

Parables are intended to make one, major point. One can't always draw parallels for all the details in each story. For example, the woman losing the coin doesn't represent God "losing" anything.

That being said, sometimes God has searched for me as a wandering sheep.
Other times He's let me leave, waiting for me to come to my senses and return home.

Lord,
Whichever way the story unfolds, thank You for always being quick to accept my repentance. It's tough, though, knowing how to treat others with the same grace and mercy. Give me discernment between "a time to search and a time to quit searching."
(Ecclesiastes 3:6, NLT) 
In the name of Jesus, Strong and Kind, Amen.