Just as this woman did not forget that lost coin, so, the parable teaches us, God remembers us. While we forget him and we go and hide away from him and we get ourselves trapped in a position where we are even less likely to turn to him, God does not forget us. Perhaps she was distracted for a time with work or duties, or with a friend of hers, but then her friend went away and she remembered that coin, and she thought I have got to go on looking for it. That is a picture of the Lord God, except that he is never distracted and he never forgets. You may have lived twenty, forty, or sixty years far away from him. During that time you are useless to him; you are even offensive to him, yet he never forgets you. God knows your position. He knows your problem; he knows what you are doing to yourself; he knows what is going to happen to you if you do not seek him. There is one who values you, even though you are valueless to him. He values you because he knows what your future could be. He knows what he could make of you. He knows how he would love to change you and bring you to himself and give you a different life, a deeper life, and a better life walking with him. He sees your predicament.
What if the Lord Jesus Christ feels for me or feels for you? What has he got to do in order to bring us to himself? Everything. He has got to persuade us, work in our hearts, overcome our prejudices, bear with our insults and our brush-offs and our wilful disobedience, and eventually break through to our hearts and cause us to see our need. He has got to come into this world, which he has already done for those who turn to him, and take upon himself the punishment of our sin. Then he has got to expend, as it were, the energy of remaking us and rebuilding us, being very patient towards us. Even after he has converted us, he has got to be patient towards all our falls and failings and follies, all our wilfulness. We bring nothing to him except what he will make of us and all the cost to him, and yet that's the love of Christ.
Maybe there's a young person, and you are not very interested in this message. You're going to dedicate your life to this vain and passing world. That is a tragedy because this world doesn't think anything of you and me. Maybe you have one or two good friends or loved ones who, if you were to die, would be very upset. Well, that is precious. But beyond that, nobody thinks much of you. One day there will be a funeral, and there will be a few who miss you greatly, but the sad thing is everybody will get over it and it will be soon forgotten, except perhaps by your very nearest and dearest. That is what you are dedicating your life to in this world. Tragically you are spurning the one who really feels for you, and sorrows at your eternal predicament, and would save your soul and give you eternal happiness. Yes, there is one who thinks on us.
This coin was searched for personally by the woman. She probably wasn't a rich woman. She probably had no choice, but nevertheless she didn't ask a servant or to a friend to look for it. She was so anxious to find that coin that she searched for it herself. I can't trust anybody else to do it. They will just switch the broom around a little bit and not search carefully enough. It isn't their coin; they won't care as much as I would. God not only remembers us and cares for us, but, when we are saved, he deals with us personally. You won't see an altar and candles in a gospel preaching church. You won't see anybody preaching with all kinds of ornate robes of priesthood on. Because God doesn't say, ‘There's a few sinners down there. I'll appoint some minions to look after them and to appeal to them and to bring them to myself, and it will be the priest's job to deal with their sins and to sort them out. Not only is that impossible anyway, but that is not how God works. When you come to the Lord, even we are nobodies, God searches us out and deals with our souls personally. That is the wonder of the Christian gospel. Here am I, lost and away from God. I couldn't get an audience with people in high places in this world, but my God will come out to me and deal with me and touch my life directly.
Some people are touched and affected by the gospel for a long time before they are finally converted. It is amazing to think of the patience of God. Why, if a person doesn't respond to God in five minutes, should God go on stirring our hearts? What an insult it is for us not to respond immediately! Who are we? Christ has come out of glory and suffered and died for me. he is offering me, a worthless sinner, pardon and forgiveness and eternal life. I respond by saying, ‘I'll think about it. I’ll look around at my advantages in this world, and I'll let you know in a while.’ Many of us have done that, even as we sought the Lord, persisting in our arrogance and our delay. Yet God has been so gracious with us. He has put up with all that which is really so insulting to him. And you see that in the picture of the woman as she sweeps the house, and she goes on searching for this coin.