{"id":5564,"date":"2026-07-08T08:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5564"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:18:25","slug":"out-there-somewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/out-there-somewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Out There Somewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

In 1885, Tsar Alexander III placed an order for an Easter gift for his wife.

It wasn\u2019t just any Easter gift.

The leader of Russia\u2019s royal family asked the master jeweler Peter Carl Faberge to create something special. Something fit for an empress.

The result was a white enamel Easter egg, about the size of an ordinary hen\u2019s egg. When gently opened, a surprise awaited. A golden hen with ruby eyes, wearing a tiny replica of the Romanov crown, sat on a golden yolk.

The Tsarina was beside herself with joy. Alexander wasted no time in commissioning Faberge to create a new egg the following spring and every Easter after that. Thus began a tradition that continued until 1917, when the Russian Revolution brought the Romanov dynasty to a cataclysmic end.

In all, the craftsmen of the House of Faberge created 52 imperial eggs. Each one \u2013 elaborately decorated and richly bejeweled \u2013 exceeded the beauty of its predecessor. No expense was spared. The eggs featured hidden compartments, mechanical birds, and surprising trinkets \u2013 unmatched examples of artistry and complexity.

The eggs quickly became icons of luxury \u2013 representations of the wealth, power, and opulence of Russian royalty.

As symbols of former grandeur, it was clear they could have no place in the revolutionary world of the Bolsheviks. In a matter of months, the eggs were scattered, looted, or lost. Some were stored away in Russia. Some ended up in museums. Still others were snatched up by private collectors. Josef Stalin sold at least one to help finance a Communist initiative.

When the dust finally settled, 46 of the 52 Faberge eggs were accounted for. What had happened to the other six?

Here we arrive at one of the greatest treasure hunts in modern history.

Art historians and collectors continue to search for the 1886 egg, the so-called Hen with Sapphire Pendant (the second Faberge creation); the 1888 Cherub with Chariot; the 1889 Necessaire (which includes a tiny storage space for toiletries bedecked with emeralds, rubies, and sapphires); the 1897 Mauve Egg; the 1903 Royal Danish Egg (shown at right in the photo above); and the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative Egg.

Do they still exist? A number of historians and collectors live in the hope that they are out there somewhere.

Those hopes were bolstered by the surprise discovery in 2014 of the 1887 imperial egg. An American metal dealer browsing at a Midwest antique mart bought it for a comparative pittance, intending to melt it down for scrap. Further examination revealed it to be one of Faberge\u2019s irreplaceable masterpieces. It was valued at $33 million.

Financial incentives aside, artists the world over believe that it\u2019s worth searching for the six missing eggs. They are a treasure like no other. They are worth recovering.

Treasure-hunting \u2013 the relentless search for that which is lost \u2013 is a subject that recurs in the teaching ministry of Jesus.

Two weeks ago we briefly touched on his parable of the Lost Sheep: \u201cSuppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.\u00a0Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”\u00a0(Luke 15:4).

Interestingly, those in his original audience may well have been thinking, \u201cActually, no, I wouldn\u2019t go looking for just one sheep.\u201d

Kenneth Bailey, a missionary who spent almost all his life in the Middle East delving into the richness of Bible backgrounds, suggests that his listeners probably expected Jesus to ask a different question \u2013 perhaps this one:\u00a0 “Which of you, owning a hundred sheep, if a report came to you that one was lost, would not send a servant to the shepherd responsible and threaten him with a heavy fine if he didn’t find the sheep?”\u00a0

In other words, if something is lost, somebody else is going to have to pay.\u00a0But Jesus says, “No, think again.\u00a0You<\/em> are responsible.\u00a0You<\/em> own a hundred sheep, and you<\/em> lose one of them.”

Looking for a lost sheep in Palestine was (and still is) no walk in the park.

The land is extremely dry.\u00a0Bailey remarks that more than once he witnessed a Holy Land tourist leave his bus, wander off the path with a camera and a bottle of water, only to be brought back two hours later on a stretcher.

Most shepherds who are alone in such conditions will think to themselves:\u00a0\u201cI hope I find the sheep\u2026and I pray that it\u2019s already dead.\u201d That way the shepherd can bring back an ear or a foot and say, \u201cHere it is.\u00a0I found it.\u00a0Job over.\u00a0We don\u2019t have to do anything else.\u201d

But that\u2019s not what happens in Jesus\u2019 parable:\u00a0\u201cAnd when he finds it [very much alive], he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.\u201d

I grew up in a church where there was a beautiful painting of Jesus with a sheep draped around his neck. It never occurred to me to wonder what that must feel like.\u00a0Imagine walking on a wilderness path with an awkward, heavy animal \u2013 its four feet bound together \u2013 wrapped like a pretzel around your shoulders.

When it comes to “missing” human beings, people who are \u201cout there somewhere,\u201d we are not to be spectators.\u00a0

Restoring the stranger whose security is at risk, or the man who is disillusioned by organized religion, or the woman who\u2019s been rejected by friends and family, or the teenager ready to give up on life, will almost always require significant commitment.\u00a0There may be a high price to pay.\u00a0But the shepherd who has on his or her heart what the Good Shepherd has on his heart is willing to search, find, and restore.

The parable ends with this interesting twist:\u00a0The shepherd \u201ccalls his friends and neighbors and says, \u2018Rejoice with me.\u2019\u201d\u00a0

Imagine telephoning the people on your street and announcing, \u201cYou\u2019ll never believe it, but I finally found my hedge clippers.\u00a0They were right behind my snow shovel the whole time!\u00a0How about coming over for some burgers this evening to celebrate?\u201d\u00a0

In ancient Palestine it was not uncommon for at least 10 to 20 families to jointly own a flock of sheep.\u00a0So if one sheep became lost, it was everyone\u2019s loss.\u00a0And if that sheep were found, it became everybody\u2019s reason to rejoice.

Jesus is saying that God\u2019s heart always goes out to the one who is most in need of help, most in trouble, or most neglected.\u00a0And we should feel a stab of happiness when something wonderful happens to someone else \u2013 even if we don’t get any special credit or attention.\u00a0\u00a0

Why is Jesus so preoccupied with all of this?

A Faberge egg may be a treasure worth finding.

But there is no treasure like every human being you will see today \u2013 including the one in the mirror.

And no task is so eternally significant as joining the Good Shepherd in restoring his children who are out there somewhere.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here In 1885, Tsar Alexander III placed an order for an Easter gift for his wife. It wasn\u2019t just any Easter gift. The leader of Russia\u2019s royal family asked the master jeweler Peter Carl Faberge to create something special. Something fit for an empress. The result was a white enamel Easter egg,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1133],"class_list":["post-5564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lost-sheep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5564","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=5564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5566,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5564\/revisions\/5566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}