The Parable Of The Lost Ring

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog entitled, Why I Write What I Write. In that post I pointed out that Jesus used parables when he taught, because sometimes a story connects more readily and people can relate to the characters or the circumstances in the story. One such parable appears in Luke chapter fifteen.

Jesus was teaching the people who had drawn near to hear Him, and He said, “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!’”

When our son died a little over four years ago, I took his Marine Corps ring to a jeweler and had it sized so my husband could honor our son by wearing it in his memory. Then, a little over a year ago, my husband lost some weight, which made the ring a little bit loose. He was always careful to take the ring off and put it on his dresser. One day about six weeks ago, the ring disappeared. Like the woman in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, we turned the house upside down looking for that ring. We moved furniture, searched corners on our hands and knees, shined a flashlight in closets—there wasn’t a square inch of this house that we didn’t search. No ring.

After several days, we could only assume that the ring had been accidentally knocked off the dresser into the waste basket, which was emptied into the garbage. By the time we realized the ring was missing, the garbage man had already picked up the trash. My husband and I were both heart-sick. That ring meant so much to us.

Sunday evening, my husband was filling visitor gift bags at church when he reached into a box to get some little cookie packages. And there was our son’s ring. Joyous tears flowed. (Our poor pastor probably thought we’d both lost our minds.)

The woman in Luke fifteen rejoiced because what was lost to her had been restored. Our son’s Marine Corps ring probably isn’t worth much to anyone else except us, but to my husband and me, it’s irreplaceable.

That’s exactly what we are to God—irreplaceable. How much more does God rejoice when a person comes to know Him in a personal way, asking Him to forgive sins? Why else would God sacrifice His own Son to provide a means for us to get to heaven? Because we are His creation and He loves us so much. Why would God go to such lengths to give us a sweet mercydrop and let my husband find the ring? For the same reason—He loves us so much.

Rejoice with us, for we have found the ring that was lost, just as God rejoices over us, his children, when we come to Him.

Thanks for letting me share my heart.