As teenagers I remember vividly the race to catch the school bus.  We lived down a rather long lane and were supposed to be standing at the end of it when the bus arrived.  If no one was there the driver would graciously (although sometimes impatiently) waiting for a few moments and would even honk the horn a time or two, then would close the doors, turn off the lights and continue on the route.

We were from a family of four children; three boys and one girl.  My sister was only a little over a year younger than me so we were both teenagers together.  When it came time to go to the bus she had one problematic habit that she just couldn’t seem to break.  She would always forget where she laid her glasses.  So at the last possible moment she would begin her frantic search for those illusive glasses.  We would usually have my two brothers go on out so as to hold the bus for us because she always insisted that I wait for her.  And so I was impatiently patting my foot at the door trying to hurry her along so we wouldn’t miss the bus.  Finally she would find them and as the oldest brother I would give her the daily lecture about putting them in the same spot every evening so she would always know where they were (after all, I had worn glasses longer than she had and that’s what I did – I never had to frantically search for my glasses because I knew right where they were and could get them during the night without even turning the light on – I knew where they were).  And so she listened and would sometimes say she would try to do better and then we would start all over again the next morning.

Finding something we have lost can be a very nerve wrecking experience especially if it is something of great value.  Jesus told a parable (a story that teaches a lesson) about looking for something that was lost.  It is called the Parable of the Lost Coin.  It is only found in Luke 15:8-10 and says this:  “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  And when she has found it she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’”

In today’s world, and especially here in the United States, if most people lost a coin, unless it was a very valuable or rare coin, we wouldn’t think much of it.  A penny seems nearly worthless; a nickel or dime not very important; and we might go search for a quarter but we wouldn’t waste much time on it.  However to this woman even though she had ten coins the one lost coin was extremely important.

I always pictured an elderly woman, poor and in need and the importance of this coin was tremendous to her.  If it were a widow woman who had to pinch every penny she got we can certainly understand why she had to find this one coin.  In Biblical days employment for women wasn’t common.  The woman was expected to be married and raise children. Don’t throw things at me ladies this was just the way it was.  If she was elderly and her children were grown and gone without her husband she had no livelihood and so what money she got she had to pinch and make it last.

But just because we may picture an elderly lady doesn’t mean that she had to be an elderly lady.  According to tradition many married women in the Jewish culture wore a necklace of ten coins around their neck similar to a married woman today wearing her engagement ring and wedding band. It was the articles proving her marriage.  If this were the case the importance of finding that coin would be equaled to finding a lost set in an engagement ring.

Whichever the case the urgency to find this lost coin makes much more sense.  In our modern economy we might wonder “why not just go out and earn another coin?”  But if elderly and in need that coin was very important.  If it was the married woman that coin represented to proof of her marriage.  It had to be found.

In contrast, the lost coin is representative of our recognition of our need for a Savior and our desperate search for Him.  When we come to the realization that we are hopelessly and helplessly lost without a Savior then the importance of finding Him becomes imperative – it is literally a life and death matter.  Without Him we are eternally lost – doomed to an eternal death.  Once we come to this realization then there is no choice but to find that Savior.  We will look closer at the search for Him in the next article.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.