Coming soon from Cape Arago Press
The Lost Coin
When
Jesus was small he liked to help his mother Mary around the house. He shook out
his sleeping mat all on his own and rolled it up for her as the day began. He
carried water from the river in his own little bucket. He cleaned the empty
jars and boxes in the store room. And sometimes, just occasionally, when his
Mom was in a very good mood, he even stomped the grapes to make the wine! Then
his feet would get messy and red with juice. He’d have to remember to wash them
before coming inside.
One day
Jesus’ mother Mary looked terribly worried. Jesus asked her what was wrong. “I’ve
lost a coin,” Mary said, “and I really need to find it.” So Jesus said, “Can I
help?” and Mary said, “Yes.”
Jesus
unrolled his sleeping mat and shook it carefully to see if anything was hidden
inside. Three wooden donkeys fell out that Joseph had made for him to play
with, but no metal coins. Then Jesus rolled up the mat and put it away. Next Jesus
tipped up the empty jars in the store room and reached inside with his little
hands. He found four spiders and a couple of flies but no coins. His mom said,
“Be careful. There might be snakes and they’ll bite you,” but there weren’t and
they didn’t. Then Jesus took down all the wooden spoons and plates from his
mother’s shelf and checked them one by one. He found a few grains of wheat and
a sticky patch of honey that he scraped off with his fingers, but no coins.
Then he went outside to search the footpath around the house but all he found
were stones. They looked like coins—they were round and shiny—but his mother
said they really weren’t what she wanted. Finally Jesus tipped up the bucket of
water and his mother said “No!”
“But I
wanted to see if the coin was inside it,” said Jesus.
“But
now we’ve got no water to wash in,” said his mother, so Jesus went to the river
to get some more.
When
Jesus came back his mother had lit up a lantern and was sweeping the floor. She
swept behind the rolled up sleeping blankets. She swept around all the storage
jars (making sure not to tip any over). She swept into every corner of the
room, and around every piece of furniture, and under the window and next to the
door. And then she shouted “Hurray! I’ve found my coin!”
Mary
rushed outside holding the coin up in her hand. “I’ve found my coin,” she
shouted as the sun sparkled and reflected off its silvery shine. All the women
came out of their houses to look and cheered for her. Then one of the older
boys rushed in from the fields to announce that a trader was coming.
“You
found your coin just in time,” said one of Mary’s friends, and Mary smiled. She
took the coin to the trader and bought a shiny metal tool with a long thin
blade and a beautifully polished handle for her husband Joseph.
“What
is it?” said Jesus.
“It’s
for woodworking,” said Mary.
And
Jesus smiled. “Daddy will love it!”
“Indeed
he will,” said Mary. And indeed he did.
Years
later Jesus was preaching to people about heaven and who can go there when somebody
asked him, “What’s heaven like?”
“The
kingdom of heaven is like when a woman lost a coin,” Jesus said. “She lit a
lamp and swept out her house to search for it, and when she found it she went
out rejoicing.”
“Does
that mean the kingdom’s lost and we’ve got to find it?” someone asked. Someone
else said, “Maybe it’s something precious and well worth looking for.” “Are we
the coin or the woman?” “Or maybe God’s like the woman and he’s searching for
us.”
Jesus
smiled. “It’s all that and more,” he said and then he told them another story.
Thank you God for
caring about mothers and fathers and families and children and lost coins.
Thank you for
telling us all about your heavenly kingdom
and thank you for
giving us a home there where we can live with you forever.
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