Finding
March 3, 2011
Excerpt from Luke 15:1-10
"Light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully."
Reflection by William C. Green
Searching for the lost silver coin, the woman in Jesus' parable swept the house. The search was difficult because floors in those days were tramped down earth covered with dried leaves and plant stems. The woman swept, not to clean the house, but to dislodge the coin from its hiding-place so she could catch its glint.
So the good news of God's power and presence comes to us. It's not that we're first swept clean of sin and weak faith. Rather what's already within us, the power of God's spirit, is "dislodged" from its hiding place and no longer lost in our hearts. We catch the glint of God—much the way one mother speaks of catching the glint of a wild uncle in her one-year-old, in the look she gets when she has more energy than she knows what to do with, or in the way her forehead compresses when she reaches for something beyond her grasp.
We bear the image of our creator, tarnished though it is, obscured by other of our features. We have within us traces of divine love and strength. These come to light in our relationships with one another when something of the spirit of Christ breaks through guarded habits and fixed dispositions. This is what happens in the church at its best. Once recognized, we can rejoice with the woman in Jesus' story, "for I have found what I'd lost."
Prayer
Search me, O God, and open my heart. Bring out the best that is too often buried.
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