This reflection was written by guest blogger Dawn Leskoske, a new participant in our “church without walls” ministry in Jacksonville, FL.  Thank you, Dawn for sharing your gifts!

“Or what woman who has 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” (Luke 15:8)

(photo taken on a chilly day in Jacksonville, FL)

I was sitting with a group of people when this scripture was read.

We were gathered in a circle.

Outside. Sitting very close together trying to stay warm. It was one of those misty, damp, windy, drizzly, gray November mornings in North Florida where you wrap your hands around your cup of coffee and bring it close to your face for warmth.

It wasn’t helping.

But even as I sat there, my body shivering, my spirit and my soul began to fill with the warmth that comes from Heaven as God reveals Himself in your midst.

No, I’m not talking about freaky, weird, ghostly visitations. But the kind of peaceful revelation that He is there and you are seeing Him in the eyes of those you are sitting next to and across from.

So, there we were, reading about a woman and her lost coin when God’s living Word came alive and the thought struck me: All the coins are of equal value. No one more or less than the other.

The writer of Hebrews tells us this will happen: “The Word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12).

The woman’s discovery that one was missing caused her to jump into action. It sent her on a mission, and she was not going to be detoured.

Looking high and low. Sweeping the house. Lighting a light in the darkness (there’s another whole thought on this point!!).

She did not stop until she found it and rejoiced. Not just with herself, but with her friends and neighbors.

To be equal is to have the same worth, merit or importance as another. Equality is being treated as such.

This was the truth that God, through His Spirit spoke to me that early fall morning sitting in that circle.

In that circle with a group of homeless men — and those who had homes to go to — at the invitation of a friend who sits in that circle regularly. She invited me to share in ministering by sharing a  cup a coffee and some time.

But they are the ones who did the ministering by accepting a strange face and making me their friend.

I’m grateful they treated me as an equal.