He Seeks He Saves

08/01/23 – 08/04/23

The Woman and the Lost Coin

By Michael Youssef, Ph D.  08/02/23

Read Luke 15:8-10.

In Luke 15:8-10, a woman loses one of her ten coins, but these weren’t just any coins. They were part of a semedi, a beautiful headdress a woman would be given by her betrothed. It represented their coming marriage; it was a symbol of their commitment to one another. To lose one of the ten coins set in that headdress was traumatic. It simply would not do to wear it with a coin missing.

In Jesus’ day, the houses in Israel were not very big, and they were also very dark. Most were tiny and did not have windows to let in natural light. The floor would have been dirt, which can crack, leaving lots of nooks for a coin to fall into. Is it any wonder, then, that the woman lit a lamp and swept the entire house, not stopping until she found her precious coin? If it were only an ordinary coin, she would have let it go. But this coin, of course, was more than a small circle of silver to her. It was personal.

You see, when Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, He demonstrated that His search for you is individualized. As the Good Shepherd, He carries you on His shoulders individually as if you were the only person on the face of the Earth. And in the parable of the lost coin, He shows us how personal His love is. You are not just a nameless face in the crowd; He focuses on you as if you were the only person in the whole universe. That’s what makes Him the Almighty God, the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving God.

But in this parable about the lost coin, note that the woman searches inside the house. Friend, there are those who attend church, who consider themselves part of the local Christian community, and yet they are still lost. They have never repented of their sin nor accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Is that you? Are you lost in God’s house? If so, I want you to know God’s love for you is more than words. It’s not merely a theory. And it’s not conditional, based on how well you’re behaving on a particular day. His love for you is constant and unrelenting; it’s active; it’s sacrificial. It cost Him everything, a Truth revealed in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. At the cross, Jesus endured the worst this world has to offer—all so that you might be found.

Prayer: Lord, how beautiful Your love for sinners like me. I am awed at how special I am to You. Help me to live in the freedom that Your tremendous love brings, that I might be holy as You are holy. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” (Luke 15:8).