Lost

Have you ever lost anything? Your all-important mobile phone? What about those vital car keys? A letter or document? Lost your passport? What about your purse or wallet? An important invitation to a special event?

Or have you ever been lost anywhere? When you were a child were you ever lost in a supermarket? Lost in a new school? Lost on a busy beach? Or have you lost a child that you should have been watching closely? You blinked and they wandered off. Have you ever had your name called over a tannoy of a department store so you can be reunited with those who wandered from you or you from them? It’s not a nice feeling and it causes us to panic.

Do you find that other people in your family expect you to have special powers to locate their lost things in your home too? You are the one who should know where everything is!

What about in our everyday lives? Sometimes you can feel like you have lost your way a little, or lost hope, or lost direction, or even feel like you have lost the plot or lost your mind!

All sorts of things can cause this, particularly disappointments. Some may have lost love. ‘It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ said the poet Tennyson, but the reality of that is painful.

In Luke Chapter 15, there are three stories of lost things that are found again: the lost coin, lost sheep, and the lost son. I love how Jesus relates to our deepest feelings of anguish and panic about things that we lose.

The Lost Son in the chapter had ‘lost it all’, by going his own way and squandering his inheritance, but one day found his way back to his Father and family and was ‘found’ again and there was cause for great celebration. The Father in the story represents God and he is awesome at helping people who have lost ‘it’ whatever ‘it’ maybe. He finds us right where we are and rescues us.

Luke 15:24 ‘He was lost but now he is found.’