The Lost Coin
To explore the parable of the Lost Coin
by Gordon and Ronni Lamont
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To explore the parable of the lost coin.
Preparation and materials
- Hide a coin at the front of the hall.
- Prepare a reading of Luke 15.8-9 in a child-friendly version. The GNB version is included here, although you will need a Bible for 2 below, with the place marked so that you can find the story easily.
Assembly
- Explain that you have hidden a coin somewhere at the front of the hall. Invite volunteers, one by one, to come and search for it. Let them know as they get 'warmer', or 'colder', until the coin is found.
- Take the coin, and say that you are going to put it into a 'story slot machine'. Produce the Bible and slip the coin in at the right page, then flip through until it opens at the story.
- Read the story in Luke 15.8-9.
Or suppose a woman who has ten silver coins loses one of them - what does she do? She lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and looks carefully everywhere until she finds it. When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, and says to them, 'I am so happy I found the coin I lost. Let us celebrate!'
It doesn't seem much of a story, does it? A woman loses a coin, she searches high and low, then she finds it and is so pleased that she throws a party for her friends - it's hardly Harry Potter, is it? - Point out that the coin must have been valuable for the woman to search for it so hard and long and to be so pleased when she found it.
- Explain that this is a parable - a simple tale that is meant to give listeners something to think about. Even this very simple story can have a big meaning. Ask the children to think about this during the Time for reflection, which follows.
Time for reflection
If I lose something that doesn't matter to me -
an old leaflet, a broken pencil, a toy I don't play with any more,
if I lose something that doesn't matter to me,
it doesn't bother me much at all.
If I lose something that does matter to me -
some money, my lunch, my favourite toy,
if I lose something that does matter to me,
I search and search and don't stop until I find it,
or until I know it's really lost.
Jesus said that God looks for me like that:
searching high and low
never letting go
making sure I know
that I'm so
very, very special.
Song/music
'Every word comes alive' (Come and Praise, 72)
Acknowledgements
Scriptures quoted from the Good News Bible published by The Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.
