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“Someone Went Looking” - Thursday, March 19, 2025

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:3–7

In John 9, after the man who was healed gets thrown out of the synagogue, something quiet and remarkable happens. “Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him…” Jesus heard. Jesus went. Jesus found him. The man didn’t find his way back to Jesus. Jesus came looking. And the parable in Luke 15 tells us that’s not a one-time story. That’s simply how God moves.

The lost sheep in the parable doesn’t do anything to get found. It doesn’t navigate its way back. It doesn’t improve itself or figure things out first. It just gets found — because the one who cares about it refused to write it off. The shepherd leaves ninety-nine perfectly safe sheep in the open field and goes after the one that’s gone. That is, by any practical measure, a terrible risk-management strategy. But grace has never been about risk management.

There are people in all our lives who have been “thrown out” in one way or another — pushed to the edges by illness, failure, addiction, grief, a mistake they can’t seem to move past, a label that stuck. There’s a version of faith that says: well, they made their choices. Another version says: someone needs to go looking. The second version is harder. It’s also the version Jesus keeps living out in story after story.

The good news at the center of this week’s theme is not just “stop blaming people.” It’s this: God does not write people off. God goes looking. And the joy that follows finding is not polite satisfaction — it’s a party. It’s calling all the neighbors. It’s the kind of joy that simply can’t be kept quiet.

Reflection:  Who in your life has been “thrown out” in some way — pushed to the margins, written off, or simply forgotten in a hard season? What would it look like for you to be the one who goes looking?

Action Step:  Reach out today to one person you’ve lost touch with — someone who may be going through a hard season. A text, a call, a card. Just let them know they haven’t been forgotten.

Prayer:  God, thank you for being the kind of God who goes looking — who leaves the ninety-nine and comes after us when we are lost. Help us to be people who do the same for the ones around us. Amen.