Those guys fascinate me! They dig around in the dirt to find something “fascinating” to make us have a better understanding of History… people, places, things. They get as excited about some of their “discoveries” as the guys who dug up that enormous diamond recently.
Every shovel full of dirt is scrutinized. It seems that one who loves to do such undertakings as this would get tired of it. Instead, every one of them goes back for more.
After you visit Israel and Egypt you can appreciate how the sand storms can bury items and places. In fact, visiting Yuma, Arizona, and looking at the dunes that folks had to cross to get to California, and learning how they put down planks of wood to cross the desert dunes, you realize what “dreams” can do to people. I constantly marvel at those pioneers. They say that some of those planks are still buried in the desert.
We have had a record amount of days over 110 and 115 degrees this summer and when I got home today and got out of my air-conditioned car, and when I lived in Alaska I recall heated cars…they all do quite well under “adverse” conditions.
Back to my thoughts about the Shepherd who lost a sheep and the lady who lost a coin. (Luke 15) It was not the thought that “I still have 99; it was the thought one was lost. The shepherd gets someone to watch his flock as he seeks out the ONE that was lost, and comes home with it on his shoulders, rejoicing. The woman loses one coin of ten. She knows it’s worth, a day’s wages, and there is housecleaning until it is found. In both cases, there is great rejoicing over the one that is found.
Jesus did not stop at that point; He spoke of a young man who had left home and family and went out to “do his thing”. When he returned, the Father was waiting, saw him in the distance, and with open arms welcomed him. Great rejoicing and celebrating took place.
A shepherd with 100 sheep; a lady with ten coins; a father with two sons, one a prodigal; but it is not what they possessed, but what they had lost.
The archeologist is looking for something that has been lost to history, buried under time, a value of the past. No value equals something or someone, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
In summation, Jesus relates it back to His Father: “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy “in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (v10)
ETCetera 