If this parable were updated to today's technology, the woman would pull out her cell phone and tap on the flashlight app to look for the lost coin. No need to mess with oil in a lamp- but you still better be sure the battery is charged! The point is the same, the light shines in the dark corners to hopefully reveal the lost coin.
1 John 1:8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We all have dark corners within ourselves, actions and attitudes that simply don't measure up to what we know God would want. In the light of God, those areas are revealed and found out. But the verse above continues, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." In being found by God's light, we are not punished or condemned. Quite the opposite, we are forgiven and cleansed! The lost one is reunited with God and a relationship again established.
If the woman is similar to God in this parable, then God is actively looking for us, carrying a lamp or flashlight, shining it in the dark corners until we are located. How grateful I am that God seeks us out, not afraid of the dark, until we are found and brought into the light.
I have experienced God "finding" me so many times when I do not deserve it. Although I really don't want him, or anyone else, to discover my dark places, I am grateful when he moves me into the light.
ReplyDelete