Luke 15: 1-31

Scott McKeown

On December 19th last year (2010!) at 9am, I was on my way home from a week long business trip in the U.S.

I had just flown into London Heathrow and was to wait 5 hours in Terminal One before my connecting flight into Belfast. I was tired and so slept on terminal bench seating.

After a rude awakening to 'Jingle Bells' by the Terminal Santa Claus (!!) I thought I'd go for a coffee.

Then it started.......

I reached to my right pocket,

I reached to my left pocket,

I checked my hoodie

I searched my laptop bag.......

NO WALLET!

A sweaty panic was settling in as I checked all the places again; around, under and nearby to the bench I slept on and toilet I'd been to.....this doesn't sound pretty, it wasn't, I desperately wanted my wallet. Have you been here?

Essentially everything I needed to help me get from A to B when traveling that day was gone....NO WALLET!!!

I retraced all my steps from security to 'world of tax free'. I rang the gate I departed from in the States. I rang shops I had been to in the US terminal. I rang several different numbers for airport lost property. I searched and re-searched for over two hours before I starting telling myself to accept it was lost; but I couldn't let go - the wallet was mine, it's personal, it's got me all over it. I wouldn't give up trying to find it!

It was in the middle of that crowded terminal, in the midst of the anxiety (I wanted to have it), the jealousy (I didn't want anybody else to have it cause it was mine, it's personal) that God spoke very clearly to me....right then I knew just the most minute fraction of the soul seekers heart.

The passage of 'lost properties' in Luke 15 starts at 1 in 100, then 1 in 10, then 1 in 2......Jesus is driving home the message that it's individuals He cares passionately about. Jesus loves you, yes the person next to you (I dare you to tell them that!), but He loves you, individually. If you are saved (found!) by His marvelous grace, you're not a number except His number one!

You are His. He is written all over you and He is jealous for you. God doesn't want you wandering off and falling away from Him as you are tempted by worldly things. He'll keep you in His hand as He wants you for Himself, because you are His, you belong to Him. I don't think I can labour the point enough!

If you're reading this as someone who has not yet experienced God's love and personal relationship with Jesus, or perhaps you feel you have drifted so far from God that He must have given up on you, then read verses three and eight. He will search until He finds you!! God is a relentless seeker!

What is God saying to you right now as you realise He has been seeking you!? Read verse five. He longs to carry you home! Be warned however, when He finds you and beckons you to return home with Him, He won't keep asking; you have a crucial decision to make, do you stay lost or go home with God to the party that awaits (verses six and nine).

I pray that today you'll know that you are precious to God. May you experience something of the seeking heart of God because it is a beautiful thing. May we as followers of Christ learn to love the lost as Jesus does. He is still seeking lost souls today.

May it be our prayer that Jesus experiences the joy in finding even one lost soul today and carrying that soul home so we, as His family can rejoice together. May you lift up the names of the lost souls in your life that you know and love to God today and be encouraged that God specialises in tirelessly seeking that which is lost! God doesn't give up like we do!

As a matter of interest, I never found the wallet, but all that it was and all it contained was replaceable. I have a new wallet and new bank cards. You however are one of a kind, never to be replaced; so precious to the Soul Seeking God.