December 15

"Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth."—Luke 15:7.

FATHER and Son and Holy Spirit rejoice when lost things are found.

The Father is glad. He sings over His wayward, beggared, self-impoverished child, This, My son, was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. May I satisfy the Father's soul by my return! It will be the realisation of His eternal purpose. It will be the restoring of His banished—His banished, long absent from His household but never absent from His heart.

The Son is glad. He is the Good Shepherd who crossed the dark mountains and the deep waters. He grudges no pains, and no pain, to find His silly and perishing sheep. He carries it back to flock and fold. May I give this delight to Jesus! I would let Him see fruit from His own soul's bitter travail. I would show Him that His expenditure of love and sorrow has not been vain.

The Holy Spirit is glad. Is not the Spirit the woman, lighting the candle, and searching for her missing drachma—searching till once more it is hers? His love for me is wonderful, passing the love of women. May I permit Him to find me! Then will His patience and all the ingenuities of His wisdom and grace have their fitting recompense.

There is joy in the presence and the heart of God when a beggar and bondman is saved, a soul forlorn and feeble and unworthy. Have His throbbing and triumphant bells pealed over my homecoming? "O sinner, sinner," Rabbi Duncan once said, "you have something in your power which no saint has. Repent, repent, and you will make all heaven ring for joy."