{"id":4837,"date":"2025-08-25T08:01:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4837"},"modified":"2025-08-25T08:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:01:51","slug":"epi-rejoicing-over-one-who-is-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/epi-rejoicing-over-one-who-is-found\/","title":{"rendered":"EPI: Rejoicing “Over” One Who is Found"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0<\/em>

A few years ago, I was standing at a rental car counter when a woman, seemingly out of nowhere, rushed up beside me.

One of the employees held up a lidded cup. \u201cOh, you found it!\u201d she gushed. \u201cThank you so much!\u201d

With that she took hold of the cup, which she had accidentally left in her rental. She walked away looking exceedingly happy.

The employee smiled. I asked, \u201cDo people often come back looking for things they\u2019ve left behind?\u201d \u201cAll the time,\u201d he said.

\u201cSometimes people return desperately hoping we still have something of theirs that seems to be of little value. Like that cup, for instance. Once someone drove for miles just to retrieve an open package of sunflower seeds,\u201d he said with a chuckle.

\u201cBut this is what really amazes me.\u201d With that he stepped over to a file cabinet and opened a drawer. It was crammed with laptops, tablets, cell phones, wallets, purses, and jewelry. These were items of significant value. Many had been sitting in the Lost & Found drawer for months.

\u201cIt\u2019s so interesting what some people think they simply have to have,\u201d said the rental car guy. \u201cAnd what others seem to have completely forgotten about.\u201d

In a single chapter of one of the Gospels, Jesus tells back-to-back-to-back stories about things that are lost.

Luke 15 describes a lost sheep and a lost child. A shepherd leaves 99 sheep in the security of the sheepfold and goes looking in the wilderness for sheep No. 100, which may not survive the night unless rescued. A brokenhearted father hopes and prays that a runaway son will come to his senses and return home.

There is deep emotion behind each of those familiar stories. God seeks the one who is lost.

Squeezed in between is a parable, not nearly as well known, that\u2019s only three verses long. But it stirs emotions that must surely have resonated with Jesus\u2019 original audience.

\u201cOr suppose a woman has ten silver coins\u00a0and loses one. Doesn\u2019t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?\u00a0And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, \u2018Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.\u2019\u00a0In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over<\/u><\/strong><\/em> (EPI<\/strong>) one sinner who repents\u201d (Luke 15:8-10).

The woman has 10 silver coins.\u00a0The Greek word here is drachma<\/em>, which (like the denarius<\/em>), was worth about a day\u2019s wages.\u00a0

In today\u2019s money, she has about 10 x $100, or $1,000.\u00a0This is probably the family savings account.\u00a0Imagine her panic when she goes to count her coins one night and only finds nine.\u00a0Ten percent of her 401(k) is missing.\u00a0Has she dropped it?\u00a0Was it stolen?\u00a0

She can\u2019t hold off until morning.\u00a0She takes her oil lamp and searches every nook and cranny of her packed-earth floor.\u00a0She sweeps every corner and every seam.\u00a0She looks under mats and shards of pottery \u2013 once, twice, three times \u2013 always looking at things from a different angle.

And then, at last, she sees a glint of silver.\u00a0It\u2019s here!<\/em>\u00a0After hours of anxiety, all is well. \u00a0

She can\u2019t wait to tell her neighbors.\u00a0They\u2019ll join her in screaming for joy.

Jesus declares \u201cthere is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God EPI<\/strong> one sinner who repents.\u201d We recall that prepositions, though small and seemingly inconspicuous, are powerful words that play a vital role in the meaning of a sentence. They generally show direction, location, or time.

So what does EPI<\/strong> signify in this parable?

Whereas EPI <\/strong>typically means \u201cupon,\u201d its translational bandwidth includes \u201cover, at, by, before, across, against, among, beside, in, and on the basis of.\u201d

Jesus seems to be saying that God\u2019s angels are intimately wrapped up in the drama of human salvation. They\u2019re paying attention. EPI<\/strong> in this verse might be rendered \u201cconcerning.\u201d \u201cThis is how my Father feels whenever you\u2019re off the spiritual grid,\u201d Jesus says.\u00a0\u201cHis heart is beating hard.\u00a0He\u2019s desperate to find you.\u00a0He won\u2019t stop searching. And the angels themselves are rooting for a happy ending.\u201d

Who is this God who cares that much about you?

He\u2019s the Good Shepherd.\u00a0And the Waiting Father.\u00a0And the Searching Matriarch who will throw a party the minute she knows you are safe.\u00a0

Whenever you feel stuck, or adrift, or thwarted, or paralyzed, or running away, or simply lost in the fog of not knowing what to do next, there is Someone who will always come back for you.

That\u2019s because you yourself are the ultimate treasure worth retrieving.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here \u00a0Each weekday in the month of August, we will pursue \u201cprepositional truth\u201d by zeroing in on a single Greek preposition in a single verse, noting the theological richness so often embedded in the humble words we so often overlook.\u00a0 A few years ago, I was standing at a rental car counter… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[987,473],"class_list":["post-4837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lost-coin","tag-prepositions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4837\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}