Read Luke 15: 8-10
Back in this time of history, women didn’t typically own very much. Here we have a woman with ten coins, probably the money her father gave her when she got married. If her husband ever divorced her, that’s all she would be entitled to leave the house with. These ten coins are not much in terms of financial security, but they are all she can call her own and very important to her. Her home would have either had a dirt floor or loosely fitting stones. Finding the lost coin took a lot of effort in using a lamp for better lighting and sweeping in order to find the coin in the dirt or lodged between stones. Like the story of the sheep, there is joy when the lost is found.
In this parable the woman represents Jesus, and the coins represent us. That means that in tangible ways we aren’t very valuable, but Jesus values us very highly as his own and doesn’t want to lose any of us. This story is clearest of the three in letting us know the value God places on each one of us, both the ones safely hidden away and the one that has yet to be found.
What does it mean for us? It means that if we have the same viewpoint as God, we are going to be willing to put forth the effort to find the lost one, even when the lost one appears to not be all that valuable. We should value people as God does!