Spiritual Solutions

God believes in you! So the question is, “Do you believe in yourself?”

Do you know how important you are to God?  “How important could I be?” you may ask.

Jesus answers this question in three parables, found in Luke 15.

The first is the parable of the lost sheep. He said, “There was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. And one of the sheep went astray from the ninety-nine. Would you not, as a shepherd, leave the ninety-nine and go after the one sheep that had gone astray?” And, of course, his listeners were astonished because who among them would leave the ninety-nine and go after that one? None of them would. They would say, “No, we have ninety-nine here. Let that one go.”

But no, God as a shepherd searches for that one sheep. In the same way, God as shepherd values each single person so much that he would risk going out into the dark, into the mountainous areas, at risk of robbery or worse, to find the one that is lost.

The next parable is about a lost coin. This time it’s a woman, God as a woman, a housewife who loses a silver coin from ten that she had. It says that she searched frantically for this one coin until she found it; and then she rejoiced.

In both instances, we find this sense of rejoicing after the finding. God searches, finds, restores, and rejoices.

With the sheep, the shepherd says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” And repentance simply means changing direction, moving toward God’s presence instead of away from God.

The woman says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Joy is the outer expression of the inner experience of divine grace. When we feel and experience that movement of grace we naturally release that expression of joy. There is a celebration that takes place.

So we have the shepherd, God as a shepherd, who in the eyes of the Scribes and Pharisees would be an outcast, an insignificant person. Then we have the woman, God as a woman, and the woman in those days was of no significance at all, had no power. Jesus is saying that God comes in all these ways to search for you, to find you, to bring you back to himself.

The last parable of the three is the jewel. The imagination has been stirred up now; the people to whom Jesus is speaking are ready.

In the last parable Jesus said God is like a father. He said, “There was a man who had two sons.” The father, in this story, is one who would not have been admired in that culture because he gave way so easily and was undignified.

We know the story as the parable of the Prodigal Son.

Remember, in the story, the youngest son went off. He wanted to take his share of the inheritance he would be due from his father. In those times, the eldest son received two thirds of the inheritance when his father died. The younger brother would only receive a third, so he thought he would get a head start and have his entire share of the inheritance early so he could go off and a get a head start over his brother. He wouldn’t be able to stay at home anyway, because all of the farm and everything would go to his brother.

So he went to his father and asked for his share and, the story says, went off into a far country and spent his money. A famine came along and when his money was gone he found he had no friends left either; and he ended up feeding and sleeping with the hogs.

It was then, it says in the story that he came to himself. He realized who he was, and he began the journey back to the father’s house. When he first went back he told his father that he wasn’t worthy to be a son any more and to just hire him as one of the servants. That was his solution.

But the father’s solution was different. He told his servants, “Look, come and bring the best robe to put on my son and bring a ring to put on his finger and shoes to put on his feet. He’s no barefoot slave.” These were important symbols: the robe of acceptance, the ring of authority, and the shoes of understanding. Then he said, “Let’s have a party. Let’s kill the fatted calf. Let’s celebrate.” That which was lost is found again, that which was lost has come back into a sense of oneness with the indwelling presence. It is cause for celebration.

So often we feel a sense of insignificance in our world today, do we not? In this world of complexity we sometimes feel our littleness. In fact, someone said to me just a couple of days ago, “Does it really matter if I’m not there? Does it make any difference if I stay away?” Yes, it makes a difference. Yes, it matters. You are important to God, and you are important to everyone else. What you do and where you are matters.

Remember in the story, there was something else that happened. When the son came home and the father threw a party, there was another person on the scene – the elder brother.

The elder brother was not too happy about the situation. He had stayed at home. Of course, they were his fields, he was working his fields and he was the one who would benefit from them. But he was self-righteous, he was angry. In fact, he was in a far country too, wasn’t he? He may not have left the house of his father in proximity, but he left it in consciousness. He was angry and self-righteous that someone he thought undeserving should be receiving good; and yet he wasn’t recognizing his own good.

We might ask ourselves at this point if we ever feel resentment or jealousy when we see someone else receiving some extraordinary good. Are we able to celebrate with them?

One of our children in Sunday school had a funny thing to say about the prodigal son story. The Sunday school teacher was telling them the story and at the end she said to them, “Was anyone sorry when the prodigal son came home?” She was just getting to the part about the elder son, and one little boy raised his hand. He said, “The fatted calf.” Yes, the fatted calf was sorry but the elder son was sorry too.

The story goes that the father wanted him to come to the party. He entreated him, he begged him to come to the party. He said, “Son, I’ve always been with you and all that I have is yours. This is your brother who was lost and is found, was dead and is alive again. Come and celebrate with us.”

There’s a story that I enjoy about a family that moved to California and they took a house that had a wonderful view looking right out at the ocean. But the house was on a cliff top and it had a wall just at the bottom of the garden in front of the cliff which then dropped off quite a way. They had a four-year-old daughter and they were really concerned that she would climb on this wall and fall off down the cliff someday.

One day the mother looked through the kitchen window and, sure enough, the little girl is going across the garden. She climbed on the wall. She stands on top of the wall, and then she falls. The mother rushed out, her heart pounding, and she looked over the edge. There was her daughter hanging on a bush that was about three feet below the top of the wall.

She didn’t know whether to scold her daughter or just hug her. Of course, she gathered her up in her arms and she said, “What happened? Tell me what happened.” The little girl said, “Well, I got on the wall and then I was falling and when I was falling I said, ‘God, get under me!’ and God said ‘I’ve always been under you’.”

You know, that’s the truth. Out of the words of little children sometimes come the greatest truths, God has always been under us. As it says in the scriptures, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” God has always been with us, at all times, even when we’ve felt our deepest sense of separation. God has always been with us.

Our greatest joy comes through discovering this for ourselves. We can never really wander away from the Father. Any feeling of being lost and alone is healed when we accept the truth that we can never wander from God. God is always one with us. We need to recognize this, to recognize God’s omnipresence, to feel it, to trust it, to rely upon it, to live our life in accordance with that realization.

This is the greatest goal we can ever set for ourselves, to become fully conscious of the presence of God at every moment of our lives. When we know that, then we know we are important to God, and then we know our own worth. You’ve got to believe in you, because God believes in you. That’s where it all starts.

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