DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 13, 2019
“Lost and Found”
Prayer: Our loving God and Father, Your love and mercy amazes us. We praise You and thank You for Your selfless sacrifice in Christ that has redeemed us and saved us from sin, death and the devil. Without You we are eternally lost, but You have found us and brought us back to Yourself by grace through faith in Christ our Lord. The words seem so small for such a magnificent salvation – thank you God. We love You. In Jesus name, Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 13:45-46
45 “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Devotion – “Lost and Found”
One of my most treasured toys when growing up as a young boy was my He-Man action figure, complete with He-Man’s somewhat neurotic noble steed named Cringer. Cringer was a tiger-like beast who by nature was quite cowardly, and overall kind of a basket case. When Prince Adam would unsheathe and draw out his power sword and turn into He-Man, Cringer was also transformed. Cringer the cowardly cat would become the fearless and powerful Battle Cat, whom He-Man would mount and ride into battle.
Well, one day I lost the part of my toy that helped transform my Cringer action figure into Battle Cat. I was so distraught. I had never looked for anything harder or more consistently in my life. I thought for sure I had lost it in our van at the time and it was just hiding under the seats. Unfortunately, after searching the entire van nearly every time we rode in it, Cringer’s Battle Cat mask was never found. I was quite worked up about it…and for good reason! The most powerful man in the universe cannot be found riding a neurotic cat into battle! Think of how Skeletor would mock and laugh at him!
As you maybe can tell, I’m still working through the trauma of such a significant loss.
All joking aside, I’m not sure much changes for us as adults. We may not be searching for lost toys, but think about the time and energy and effort we put into trying to find the things we really love and care about. If you have ever been unemployed, you know very well what I am talking about. The sleepless nights and long hours of resumes and references and interviews and phone calls and the tireless searching of ads and job listings. I remember one time my wife thought she had lost her wedding ring. I have never seen her more distraught and anxious in her life. Until it was found, she would not rest.
Jesus tells a series of parables in Scripture about things that are lost and the people who spare no expense to search for and find what they were looking for. The lost sheep, the prodigal son, the lost coin and our example for today’s devotional text, the merchant who sold everything to find the pearl of great value.
We search the hardest for the things we care most about.
I’m sure I have shared this illustrative story with you before, but it makes the point beautifully. There was a teenager who lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he hesitantly told his mother the lens was nowhere to be found. Upon hearing what had happened the mother went outside, and much to her son’s surprise, returned just a few moments later with the missing contact lens in hand.
“I really looked hard for that, Mom,” the son said. “How’d you manage to find it so quickly?”
“We weren’t looking for the same thing,” the mother replied, “you were looking for a small piece of plastic…I was looking for $150.”
We search hardest for the things we care most about, and that are the most valuable to us.
The hope and joy found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that the same is true for God. All of mankind has sinned and rebelled against God. That sin created a separation between the Holy God of Creation and sinful mankind. A gap and separation we could not close on our own. Sin blinded us, and because of sin all of mankind was lost and separated from God. Yet, our God and Creator, whose love and mercy endures forever, so loved the world and the people of His creation that He literally came here to search us out, find us and bring us back to the Kingdom of God.
We have the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven can be found, only because God first sought us out and found us. The point of Jesus’ parable about the merchant who sold all he had to buy the pearl of great price is not to try and motivate us to sell all we have in order to embark on a search for the Kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom has already come to us in Jesus! The merchant in the parable Jesus told is not you or me or any man. The merchant in the parable is Jesus, and the pearl of great value is humanity who in their sin and rebellion against God went astray and was lost. In His amazing grace and love, God left the glory and splendor of Heaven and came here in the flesh not only to search us out and find us, but to give all that He had so that we would be redeemed and saved and brought back to God.
Jesus died literally with nothing. Even the clothes on His back were gambled away by the Roman soldiers. The priceless blood of God’s Son Jesus Christ, was purchased for 30 pieces of silver. God allowed His most precious Son to be bought by the greed of sinful mankind so that Christ would faithfully give up all He had, even His own life, so that you and I and all of lost humanity would be found and restored to our God and Maker at the expense of Christ’s suffering and death.
Let me say again, we search hardest for the things we care most about.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” We are invited to seek for God and for His righteousness not because it is hidden, but because God may be found! In Christ God has closed the gap that sin created between man and God.
As the famous words of the hymn are sung:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
God bless you my friends, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
