Lost ring prompts prayer for lost souls

Awhile back, my wedding ring went missing. Since that time, there has been much searching and discussion.

Luke 15:8 quotes Jesus: “Or what woman, having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?”

The urgency with which we initially searched for my ring sounds like this woman who has lost a coin. Since my lost wedding ring has been the topic de jour for prayer and ponderings for over awhile, I wonder if the Lord is trying to show me an area of my life where I am missing the mark.

One morning, I awoke at 3:30. I assumed the Lord and I would talk about my ring. He rather preferred to discuss lost sheep and coins.

I wasn’t sure how to pray. Only he can save the ones he brought to my mind. What is my part? Are there conversations to be had? Truth to be spoken? Love to be shown? Mercy and grace to be lived out demonstratively? Power in which to pray? Of course. A sinner am I.

I know people who seem lost. They would call it wandering or taking their time or not needing any directions. But sometimes, the lostness shifts and takes on lonely, perilous shadows. As if they have fallen into a pit, and it is no longer a matter of “which path.” They fully realize there is nothing within their own power that can save them at all. They need Someone to come to their immediate rescue.

“All we, like sheep, have gone astray ….” As one rescued from the deep pit of self-centered striving, I must be mercifully motivated to offer a helping hand to those who need salvation.

If I had to choose … to live comfortably with my wedding ring securely around my finger, talking to God about my day and my darlings and my debt to him or to live within the yearning for something lost being found, while every glance down at my hand would trigger urgent thoughts to pray for and fight for and search after those who are lost, … I would choose never to find my ring.

“And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 13:9-10).

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Cari D. Johnson enjoys sharing stories and songs, but not her ginger snaps. Her family of eight worships with Immanuel Baptist Church in Marshall.