Earlier this week I noticed that my computer was running pretty slow and I was seeing the “pinwheel of death” a little too often. So, I thought I would take some time and move some unnecessary files onto my external hard drive. No big deal, I do this quite regularly.

After shifting, moving and deleting, I was satisfied that I had made enough room on my hard drive to get it running smoothly again.

I realized that I spent a little longer on the project than I had expected and opened up my calendar to see when my next appointment was. And that’s when I realized that my calendar was completely empty. EMPTY. Nothing, nada. No appointments. Not just for today but everything was LOST. I tried not to panic as I thought back to what I had deleted. Could I have inadvertently deleted my calendar? How? I couldn’t have, could I?

No worries, I thought to myself, I have everything backed up and on my phone. So I thought, in a moment of brilliance, I can sync my phone to my computer. So I grabbed the cord and plugged in my Blackberry to the computer. “Voila”, I thought. Not so much. Everything had synced on my phone all right, but with my computer. All my meetings, appointments, sermon series ideas, lost. Just like that everything was lost on my computer and now on my phone. I was panic stricken.

I worked tirelessly for the next few hours searching of ways to recover what had been lost. Eventually, in utter desperation I called the kids in for advice. They tinkered away at my appointment-eating computer. Then at the three-hour mark, Brian strolls in.

“Did you reboot the computer?”, he asked.

“No”, I replied.

Two minutes later what was lost was found! All my appointments, meetings, past and present were just sitting there, staring back at me, like no emotional damage had been done to me at all. Brian left the room a hero. He could undoubtedly hear my rejoicing as he left my office.

We go to great effort to recover lost things of significant value, don’t we?

In Luke chapter 15, Jesus used this truth to try and open our minds, our hearts and our eyes. You might recall that the Pharisees and religious teachers were offended by the people Jesus spent time with. They complained, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2). Intended to be a scathing attack on Jesus’ character, they had instead affirmed the very work Jesus came to do: To seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10).

In response to their self-righteous attitudes, Jesus told them three different stories about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son (vv.11-24). Notice how the objects in the stories increase in proportion and importance, and all three stories can be summarized by just four words: lost, search, found, rejoice.

More importantly, all three stories paint for us an unmistakable picture of who God is. He is the seeking shepherd, the searching woman, and the waiting father.

And the reason God is relentlessly seeking, searching and then rejoicing is because YOU are of great value to Him!

I once was lost but now am found…

- John Newton author of Amazing Grace

Please join us this week as we pick up our series called Finding God’s Favour. This week we’ll look at the practical aspects of walking in God’s found-favour. We will also gather around the table to share in Communion. It promises to be a powerful time! Be sure to join us and bring a friend!