A Third World Country Perspective

This morning we were in church at Madison Church of Christ in Madison, Tennessee.  The singing and fellowship was awesome.  Jason preached an outstanding sermon from Luke 15, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  Compared to our American thinking, God is not logical.  If one sheep was lost out of one hundred, we would consider it the cost of doing business.  We would not risk the harm of the other 99 to go look for one.  God loves every lost soul enough to do the illogical.  If we had 10 coins and lost one, we would not flip the house looking for it.  It is only a quarter or it is only a dollar.  Those were the amounts Jason used.  To many of us, it is we could say it is only $5.00 or it is only $20.00.  To some, it would be it is only $100.00, I am not going  to tear the whole house up looking for only $5.00, $20.00 or $100.00.  To us, that does not make sense.  But to God it does.  Every person has value.  I agree with all of this.  And, like I said, Jason did an outstanding job.

But.  I could not help but think what if this lady lived in a third world country and the coins were valued at five cents a piece.  And the ten coins had to feed her children for week.  Knowing it would be hard to make those few coins stretch as it was, to lose one would be disastrous.  Of course, she would tear the whole house up looking for it.  And, she would rejoice when she found it. 

I often find myself making first world and third world comparisons.  But, the moral of this is no matter if the coin was lost in the first world and it seems very illogical to look for it or the third world and it seems very illogical not to look for it, every person is valuable to God.