The Tribune

By Rev Angela C Bosfield Palacious

FOR THE past several weeks we have watched people around the world, including our own citizens, grieving over tragic deaths and great losses. Incidents in the Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, memorial service for the persons gunned down in Fox Hill, and the whole sordid story of slavery cause us to recall that some losses have to do with people and others have to do with things.

The parable of the lost sheep speaks of the loss of livelihood to an individual or to the community (if they were communal flocks), and this reminds us of the economic hardship that our people and others elsewhere are facing. As we watch the aftermath of earthquakes, hurricanes, fire and flood, we realise that what is lost in a day takes years and years to accumulate.

You may be able to identify with the idea of loss in some other form: redundancy, having a home repossessed, asue funds misappropriated before your draw came, a failed business, or some other financial disaster from which you have not fully recovered.

God says to us that this is but a fraction of the grief in heaven over a sinner, and your financial recovery is only a small measure of the joy that heaven exhibits when a sinner is repentant.

Similarly, the lost coin has monetary value but it is the sentimental value that makes it priceless. Probably a wedding gift that adorned her brow in a row of ten silver coins, this woman would be frantic until she found it. It would be like a wedding band or engagement ring for us.

Much energy is expended by both people (one searching for the sheep and the other for the coin) to take the initiative and find the missing object. Some things the insurance money will cover but photographs and scrapbooks, gifts from deceased persons and other personal treasures are lost forever.

The real point of both stories is to get the attention of the hearers. We identify with the stories, and then we are made to reflect on the fact that God considers our souls so precious, so valuable, so irreplaceable, that every effort is made, including Christ’s death on the cross, to bring us back to our rightful place.

In our case, however, we may resist being found. Our repentance is a matter of our choice, but it means all the world to God when we accept the offer of salvation.

Perhaps you have lost your deep faith in God, your great love for Christ’s church, your inner peace, your profound joy or your compassion for the hurting. Whatever we have lost that is of great spiritual value, the onus is on us to search for it, to pursue it, and to pray for it earnestly.

Do not accept where you are and settle for mediocrity. Our God is calling us to focus on the essentials of our faith: our love for God and our love for each other. It is not God’s way to settle for 99 sheep or nine coins. Go and find what is lost.