Lost and replaced

I've lost alot of things lately. Last week i lost the keys to my garage and mailbox. I've also lost some important documents i need to wind down my old business. Looking for these things has been a frustrating. Many of the things i've lost over the years i've forgotten about, others i still wonder if i might find one day again.

Looking for lost things (especially when we can't find them immediately) takes alot of patience. With today's busy lifestyles we seem to lack time to look, so we often give up and simply find a replacement for what we have lost. Like a lost can opener, we just go and buy another one. Suddendly we may find two or three can openers in our kitchen drawer as they re-appear.

Some things can't be replaced as easily as a can opener. Some things are just so much more important to us. Letters, photos, items with sentimental value are irreplaceable to us. Important things motivate us to search even more, like when loosing our wallet. Yet even these things, just like digital photos we so easily delete, have become less valued and more disposable.

So why did Jesus tell us the parable of the lost coin? Here's this lady who's lost a coin, searches and searches until she has found it. To me, a coin seems like something that is replacable, even if the coin might be worth a month's wage. Loosing a large amount of money would motivate most any of us to search for it, but i think there's another message hidden in this parable.

God never created life for it to be disposable. Every good thing that is given to us has a value. Perhaps i should rephrase that and say every good thing given to us is valuable.

The parable of the lost sheep might give us a better insight. This shepperd valued his sheep, every one. He left 99 to look for one he had lost. It may seem to us as a foolish risk and waste of time, but in addition to finding what was lost, perhaps it's also a lesson in the importance of seeking.

A hundred years ago, a can opener wasn't as easily replaced as today. Two hundred years ago, a hammer may have been more irreplacable than a computer today. These days in our consumer society, things are so easily replaced that we seem to have lost the art of seeking. Be it keys, coins, photos and friendships, are we seeking what we've lost? Or do we have a disposal mentality that stops seeking, finding it easier to replace what we have lost?