Acceptance of being found

Currently my favorite author is Kenneth Bailey. He's a Christian scholar who lived most of his life in the Middle East. He reads and speaks a number of languages from that region and is well-versed in the urban and peasant cultures. His academic focus (as it appears to me) is cultural understanding of the Bible. The first book I read by him is Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes. He walks though much of the life of Jesus and explains much of the cultural context that we lack in the west.
Bailey has focused a number of his writings on Luke 15. In this chapter the Pharisees and religious leaders ask Jesus why he eats with sinners. Jesus' response is a three-part parable about finding the lost. First, he talks about a shepherd who takes a risk to find his lost sheep. Then, he speaks of a woman who diligently searches out a lost coin. Then, he talks about a father who goes out to find his two lost boys - the one who broke the law and the one who kept the law. This is what we know as the parable of the prodigal son.
I could go on and on about what I've learned from Bailey's studies, but there are a few things that I'd like to point out that have special meaning to me:

First, the lost items do not lose their value just because they are lost. Each of them are searched for diligently. The owner/father goes out of his/her way and makes sacrifices to find it. It reminds me that God sees me as extremely valuable. I'm a part of the family of God, but if I were to wander I know that the Lord would search me out and value me even if I make poor choices.

Second, Baily offers his own definition of repentance. Those who have studied Greek know that the root word is metanoeo, that is, changing of the mind (lit. to think about afterwards). when we repent of a sin we change our mind, our thinking about it, 180 degrees. We no longer accept it. So, when I repent of eating out of boredom, I consider the sin of gluttony and I change my mind about it. It no longer remains acceptable in my mind.

When Baily writes of the repentance of the "prodigal" son, the son who was so proud to go out and do his own thing, to be separated from his father, he writes of the father going out to find his son on the road home. The son has to accept what the father says about him. In this repentance, he accept what the father has done. He chooses not to run away again. He accepts that he is found.

Bailey writes in Jacob and the Prodigal "Quite simple, Jesus is defining repentance as 'acceptance of being found'...Repentance is not a work which earns our rescue. Rather the sinner accepts being found." Rather than fighting, or not believing, he chooses to accept that what his father has done is true.

Lord, I accept that you have done the costly work of finding me. You value me more that I can understand. Teach me, Lord, to value what you value and accept as you accept. Amen!