the lost parable

I bought my wife a coat made entirely of hamster fur. We went to London for the day and she spent seven hours on the London Eye!*

That is my variation on today’s joke in my new calendar. I like it! It reminds me of one of my favourite parables. The story of the Lost Hamster. Yes, that’s right, the lost HAMSTER. I like to think that if Jesus was telling his parables today he would include that one.

It happened to me. Our first hamster, Sandy, escaped and managed to find her way into the cavity wall of our house. We could hear her scrabbling around inside the walls but there was no way of getting her out. In the end I decided to take some drastic measures and made some holes in the wall.

When we heard Sandy nearby we shone light into them but she never came out. After several days we were worried that the scrabbling might stop. At midnight Sally called to me and said she could hear Sandy in the cavity wall between our bedroom and bathroom. I went into the bathroom and took off the access panel underneath the sink. I could hear Sandy just the other side of some plasterboard so I pulled it off and looked in. A small hamster head poked up and I grabbed her quick!

We were so pleased and so relieved. We woke the children up to tell them that Sandy was safe and the next day told everyone about the rescue. It has also served me very well as a talk in churches!

The point of this (and Jesus’ other parables that he told and which are recorded in Luke 15) is the joy that God experiences when someone who is ‘lost’ is found. ‘Lost’ may mean those who have never known God’s love, but I think it applies more to those who have been part of his family but have drifted away. Either way God throws a party in their honour when someone who is ‘lost’ is ‘found’!

Let’s keep looking – and if you think you are lost, God is desperate to find you (again)!

*No hamsters were harmed in the telling of this joke.