I suppose everyone would like to be happy. We search for joy in so many ways. Often the search is fruitless because we look in the wrong places. The Scripture speaks of rejoicing in a number of passages. These passage vary from the joy one finds when he realizes what the Lord has done for a person to the happiness one finds when he has served his fellows.

One of the most profound joys, however, is felt when one discovers that which has been lost. Jesus tells three stories in  Luke 15 about lost things. While the lost things are diverse — a sheep, a coin, and a young man — there is one constant in all the stories. That constant is the great joy produced when what is lost is found! Each time, finding the lost item meant that there was a celebration.

Each of these stories is intended to teach how God and his people respond to the lost. There is the sense of loss, the search in the case of the coin and the sheep, and the patient, prayerful waiting for the son who had chosen to leave. There are many good lessons found here, but the principal lesson is the exhilaration over the return of what was lost.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." (Luke 15:6)

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost." (Luke 15:9)

Exhilaration over the return of what was lost.
"... we had to be happy and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found." (Luke 15:32)