Lost Coin

 

Lost Coin

Noel Laflin

1-10-23

I attended a fine memorial service for a friend on Saturday.  There were more than a hundred folks present, as the man was well-liked, and a friend to many of us.

Some knew him through his church.  Others knew him via sporting events. I knew him as a humble, honest businessman operating a family run coin shop here in town.  We struck up a friendship nearly fifteen years ago when I discovered the small storefront operation, the one squeezed between two used book stores, and he sold me a pretty silver coin that I needed for a gift.  I returned to his family run business too many times to count. since then, and he always treated me squarely, honestly, and would throw in an unasked for discount time and again when I came searching for more gifts – usually in the form of old Morgan Silver Dollars. He knew, over time, that they were a favorite of mine – and of his too, apparently, as the friendly dog who shared the shop was named Morgan.

At the memorial service I struck up a conversation with a young fellow and I told him of my interactions with the friend we were there to honor.  I wondered how this nice young man knew our mutual friend – sports, coin store, church?

Turns out it was a church connection as he was the minister who led the brief service. 

And when he stood and told the parable of the lost coin, I loved the reference; it was always one that got my attention back in my church days.  And I bet our friend would have liked it too:

“Suppose a woman has ten silver coins, but loses one. She will light a lamp, sweep the house, and look carefully for the coin until she finds it. And when she finds it, she will call her friends and neighbors and say, 'Be happy with me because I have found the coin that I lost.” –Luke 15

I would light a lamp, sweep the floor, and look carefully for just such a coin, too, especially it if was one that had Tony sold me.