Close Enough?

Friday, March 7                                 Psalm 32  

Jennifer Larson                                                                         

Last year, my son’s teacher asked her students to bring 100 items to school to celebrate the 100^th day of school.  We purchased a couple of bags of Starburst, and my son dutifully began counting out 100 pieces of the candy.

At one point in the counting process, he got a little distracted. All that candy! So close! So tempting! He had to start the counting all over again to make sure he indeed had 100 pieces when he was finished. (A couple might have ended up in his tummy. And, um, in mine, too.)

As I watched him, I was tempted to say, “Ah, you’re close enough.” I doubted that the teacher was going to sit down and actually count out 100 pieces of candy from each bag from all 17 of her kindergarteners. I mean, who would miss one little piece of candy, right? Isn’t 99 close enough?

In Luke 15:1-3, Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep to a motley crew of tax collectors, “sinners,” teachers, and Pharisees. As the Pharisees stood behind the “sinners” with their arms crossed in judgment, Jesus told them that just as a shepherd will not stop searching for one lost sheep out of 100, God will not stop searching for one lost soul of out of 100. And just as the shepherd celebrates finding that one wayward sheep that wandered off, God will rejoice and celebrate over the one who returns and repents.

The Pharisees might not have liked that message so much, but really, we should all feel immense relief and gratitude. Because it means that we all matter. God loves every one of us. We each matter.

The person you don’t like very much? He matters to God. That person who doesn’t come to church as often as you do? She matters to God. That person who is so quiet you forget about her? She matters. That person who is lost now but wants to be found, someday, somehow? He matters, too.

We are all precious to God. And we are lucky, so very blessed and fortunate, that God doesn’t get distracted when one of us wanders away from him. We are so blessed that God doesn’t just wave his hand blithely and say “Ah, close enough!”