Rejoice With Me

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

Years ago, as a newly-married youth minister, I took a group of teens to an event that had an inflatable obstacle course. My wife was challenged by some of the teen girls to race through it. She handed her engagement ring, her Aggie ring and necklace to me for safe keeping. I dutifully put them in my shirt pocket and promptly forgot about them. Next, I was challenged by some of the young men to race as well. Without thinking, I ran, bounced, crawled, and barrel-rolled through the course. I won the race, but came out a huge loser. I had lost ALL my wife’s jewelry somewhere in the inflatable course.

We scoured the obstacle course for hours afterward and managed to find everything but her engagement ring. She cried nearly the entirety of the four-hour drive home. I felt so horrible. The owners of the inflatable assured us that they would find it, but several weeks went by and we abandoned hope of ever seeing it again. About six months later, I got a text message that I was not expecting. The lost ring had been found in a small crevasse while a worker was doing a deep cleaning. They tracked me down and had I been capable of backflips, I would have done them.

In that moment, I wanted to call everyone I ever knew to tell them how happy I was. Especially, I wanted to call the people who had spent their time microscopically inspecting the inflatable for the lost ring. I surprised my wife later with a nice lunch together and presented her with “her ring” that was so dear to her. She was over the moon.

I cannot help but think of the series of parables Jesus told in Luke 15 to those who were critical of Him for receiving sinners and eating with them (Luke 15:1-2). In every case of what was “lost” being found, there was joy and rejoicing with friends and neighbors. His point in Luke 15 is that there is value in the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, so much so, that when they are found, all heaven stops to rejoice. We looked for and rejoiced over a valuable ring being found, yet, how much more should we look for and value a lost soul who is found? It reminds me of rejoicing in what’s exceedingly more valuable: souls finding Jesus!