OK. I’ll admit what a bad preacher I am. Sometimes I actually look at a story in the news and say, “I have to find a text that works with this story. It’s too good to pass up.”

Sunday evening I have to preach- briefly- to the arriving Summer School students. You can imagine what that’s like. No one comes to summer school because things are going well. So it’s not really a chipper group. But I get to talk to them for 15 minutes or so.

This story caught my attention. It’s the kind of story I like to use as an intro or a major illustration at the start of a talk. So…..

How about your suggestions. What texts could you legitimately jump to with this story as your opener? My take is in the extended comments.

I like any story that involves something lost. This could go to any of the texts where someone is looking for something. Since my kids in this setting are feeling “lost,” it’s a good theme, and easily gets to Jesus. So I would probably do a parable looking for a lost coin or sheep.