#FiveMinuteFriday! Yay for the weekend! But first, let’s look at today’s word prompt…lose. There are many others writing on this same word at Kate’s, check it out!

I’ve lost a few things in my 54, soon-to-be-55-senior-years, on this earth. My most treasured loss was my engagement ring set. I was devastated. Sure that it had dropped down into our People Lounger couch, circa 1985, The Sweetheart turned it upside down and inside out trying to recover something that wasn’t necessarily worth tons of money but meant everything to me. After he had exhausted that thought, I remembered it could have went down the bathroom drain…at the time we lived in a small ranch and that meant crawl space which also meant spiders and who knows what underneath that house. But spiders do not stop a superhero, so away he went. Again, to no avail.

Thirty years later and two replacement rings, we have never recovered the original.

“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!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10).

In this familiar story, a woman loses money, of which she likely had little, and turns everything upside down to find it. I have read somewhere that the windows in the houses were just small slits, if there were any at all, so it would have been dimly lit, even in the middle of the day.

But she does find it and she is so overjoyed that she rushes out to tell her friends of her good fortune.

Our God told that parable so we would remember His great love for us. If there is one of us lost, one that is astray, even though His house may be full…He will leave the 99 and go after the 1 just as He did in the parable of the lost sheep. 

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  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.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:1-7

• Who could we go after today?
• Do we know someone that has suffered a loss?
• Do we know of someone who IS lost, who doesn’t know Christ?
• How about a friend that is discouraged or weighted down with worries?

Will we take the time to leave our 99…our comfort zone where everyone is just like us…and take a risk to reach to the downhearted or possibly the downcast?

Help us, Lord, to be aware of those around us that You have put in our path, there are no accidents, only opportunities to share Your love. In Jesus’ name prepare my heart to love those that You love, to reach for those that are unloved and to realize I was lost too and someone reached for me.