I do not like to lose things. In fact I take many precautions to prevent myself from losing important items. And when I do misplace or forget something I usually become annoyed and worrisome, denigrating myself for forgetting. Frantic, I will stop whatever I am doing to look. My mind is preoccupied as I search until I find what I have lost. When I graduated from high school, close family friends gave me a necklace in honor of the occasion. I wore the gift throughout the summer, always carefully putting it back in the box after each wearing. When I packed my bags and left for college the necklace stayed at home, but once I returned home at break I realized that I could not find the necklace anywhere. Sure that it is somewhere in my room, I have searched over, under, and behind furniture, rummaged through boxes, and torn into the contents of drawers. Despite the necklace being missing for two years now, I have not lost hope that I may find it. Even this past summer I got out of bed late one night to look again. I wait for the joy of finding the lost necklace.

I imagine that you, like the Pharisees and scribes, do not like to lose things either. Jesus expresses a commitment to searching until the one who is lost is found. In today’s gospel there is great hope in knowing that the good Shepherd will not give up until he finds even the one lost sheep, the one in need, the one who seeks forgiveness. Although initially it seems compromising to leave the ninety-nine or the ten, those sheep and coins are secure. They are not less important but rather not in need as they are already bringing joy. This joy only increases when the lost is found. God, too, does not like to lose us. There is great hope in knowing our Shepherd will continue to seek us out, wherever we wander, until we return. Joy is having no one missing from the flock.