Halfway: the God who searches

The religious leaders were grumbling that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. He answered with three stories in a row about lost things. Here is the first:

Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.

Luke 15:4-5

A lost sheep does not find its way home. It wanders until it is stuck, and then it sits down and cries out. That is all it can do.

So the shepherd goes. Notice everything in that sentence. The search is active; God is not waiting at the gate with requirements, he is out in the dark looking. The search is personal; the ninety-nine do not make the one negligible. And when he finds it, he does not scold it home on its own legs. He puts it on his shoulders and carries it, rejoicing. Jesus doubles the image with a woman who lights a lamp and sweeps her whole house for one lost coin, then throws a party with her neighbors when she finds it. There is more joy in heaven, he says, over one person who turns around than over ninety-nine who never left.

If you have ever felt too far gone, too stuck, too late: this is his portrait of what God is doing about you. Searching. Not waiting. Searching.

And here is your halfway marker. Twenty days ago you started an experiment based on his promise that anyone who resolves to do God's will comes to know whether this teaching is from God. So check the data. Anything shifting? A grudge loosening its grip. A calmer morning. Patience that surprised you. An unexpected pull toward someone you used to avoid. Small counts. Small is how kingdoms grow, as you will see tomorrow.

Tomorrow: mustard seeds, bread dough, and why small is not what it looks like.