Connected in The Word 9-8-25
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Luke 15:6
It’s no fun to celebrate all by yourself. When your team wins, you want to give someone a high five. If you get a new job you want to celebrate with friends. Even if you’ve just found your lost keys it’s nice to share the good news with someone. In Luke 15 Jesus tells 3 parables about people who want to celebrate with everyone because they found something that was lost.
In Luke 15 there is a shepherd who lost a sheep, a woman who lost a coin, and a father who lost a son. The shepherd could have let the sheep die in the wilderness, the woman could have given up looking for the coin, and the father could have disowned the son who rejected him and squandered his inheritance. After all, there were other sheep, other coins, and another son. But none of them did that because that which was “lost” belonged to them, was loved by them, and was valuable to them.
We live in a world today where so many people are struggling because they feel like they don’t have a community that loves them and values them. I can’t imagine the pain these people are feeling. Please don’t hear what I say next as arrogant or prideful, but I have never doubted that I belong to a community that loves me and values me. This is partly because there are people in my life that tell me I am loved and valued and that I belong – No matter how broken I am (FREE ADVICE: Tell your loved ones that you love them). It is also because God’s Word reminds me that I am a sheep of the Good Shepherd. When I am lost in my sin, He comes after me because He loves me, He values me, and He knows that the community is incomplete without me. We have a Good Shepherd that finds us, washes away our sin, and draws us back into The Community through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus!
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