8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The perspective in this story is that of how God views the lost. Who does the coin belong to? The lost, you see, belong to God whether they know it or not. The owner of the coin did not lose her rite to the coin when it was lost and it did not become someone else’s. It simply had to be found.
So how does she search for it? She sweeps, she puts a lamp on it, searches the house carefully. And when she finds the coin, she rejoices.
This is the lost from God’s perspective. In the lost sheep, we see it primarily from our own perspective. We are lost and the shepherd finds us. But this parable tells us about how God searches as well, looking for that lost person, hoping one day to find him. But it isn’t simply finding that person, but that person coming to a state of repentance. Coming back to God wholly.