Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Deuteronomy 22-23

I’m prone to losing stuff. Usually the items are lost in my home. At least once a week, I can’t seem to find my keys, my purse, my sunglasses, or whatever. But sometimes I lose something when I’m out somewhere, most often my purse. When I was younger – like less than 40 ☺️ – I forgot my purse in the grocery cart with remarkable regularity. (I’d like to say I’m not so forgetful anymore, but I’m afraid that the real reason I no longer do that is that I rarely go shopping anymore, preferring the convenience of grocery pickup or delivery.)

Well, anyway, it seems I’ve passed on my forgetful genes to my youngest son (and at least one of his siblings). Last Saturday, my son was playing basketball in our church parking lot. He took his wallet out of his pocket and set it carefully on the cement light pole for safe keeping, fully intending to replace it in his pocket when the game was done. You know how the story ends, don’t you? Several hours later, when he went to put his wallet in his pocket before heading to work, he couldn’t find it and, in fact, couldn’t even remember where it was. Thankfully, I recovered said wallet from the church parking lot without a hitch. Not a dollar missing. 🎉🎉🎉

“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.”

Deuteronomy 22:1-4 ESV

What a perfect reading for me this week! I prayed, “Father, help me to do to others as I’d have done to me, to go the extra mile to restore whatever was lost!”

And suddenly I thought of the parables that Jesus told as recorded in Luke 15, the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

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

Friends, as much as we should help restore to our neighbor a lost wallet, how much more should we seek diligently to restore a lost soul. A lost human being is of infinitely greater worth than a thousand lost sheep or a million lost wallets.

What is more valuable to you,
your neighbor’s stuff
or your neighbor’s soul?

Heavenly Father, You are my greatest treasure. You are worth more to me than all the money in the world. Help me to love my neighbor as myself. Help me to love my neighbor’s children as I love my own. Help me to be faithful to love what You love, to be about my Father’s business of seeking and saving the lost. Please forgive me, Lord, for not making the most of every opportunity because of my own selfishness. Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours. I love You, Lord. Thank You for Your love for me, for chasing me down and running to me with open arms. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer I pray. Amen.