Finders Keepers

John Schnatter found his car. No, he didn’t forget where he parked at the mall. No, someone didn’t take off with his car while he was stopped at a downtown stoplight. No, John sold his gold and black 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 in 1983 to help save his father’s business. He also used part of the money to open a business himself, a restaurant chain now known as “Papa John’s.”

Here’s the deal. Schnatter apparently did what he had to do in 1983, but he missed his car. He spent years looking for it. He created a website specifically for the purpose of assisting in the search. He made promotional appearances to talk about his lost car. He offered a $250,000 reward to whoever found his beloved car. (Schnatter had a replica installed in the company headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, but apparently, it just wasn’t as good as the real thing.)

I don’t know about you, but if I was a car with feelings, I’d feel pretty special and very loved to know that someone missed me that much and loved me that much to go to all the trouble and expense to find me and bring me home! Well, guess what, you don’t have to be a car with feelings to experience that kind of love.

Jesus told a parable (a short story that uses a familiar object to convey a spiritual truth) that makes exactly that point. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:4-7, ESV).

This is a parable about God’s love for you, about his efforts to find you and bring you home, about his great joy when someone leaves their old, sinful life behind and returns to God. Imagine, God looks for us. He searches for us. Finding us when we are lost is of primary concern to him. Such love does he have for us that he went as far as sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. (That’s worth inestimably way, way more than $250,000!) And when he finds us, God rejoices! It makes him happy! Our return makes him happy! (So much for the gloom and doom old guy with a big stick ready to beat the rebellion out of us.) He even draws all the rest of heaven into the party. All this over one sinner, one person like you and me, who reaches out to God and says, “Love me. Help me.”

When John Schnatter found his 1971 Camaro, he was one happy camper. He was so happy that Papa John’s restaurants all over the country planned to offer all Camaro owners a free pizza at stores on Wednesday. Listen, if John Schnatter can be that happy over a lost car, imagine how happy God is when he finds his lost children. That’s one serious happy!