The Lost of Luke 15

Notice how Jesus tells the three examples of losing and finding in Luke 15. In the first instance, a shepherd who loses one sheep out of one hundred goes to a lot of trouble to find that single solitary sheep.
In the second the scope is narrowed somewhat. Now it is one coin out of ten. The woman cleans the house till she finds it.
But in the third parable, the one about the Lost Son or the Waiting Father, the loss is down to one out of two or one out of one. From the Father's perspective, he loses one son out of two. From the elder brother's perspective he has lost one brother out of one, but he is insensitive and blind to the loss. From the perspective of the younger brother, he not only loses his relationship with his father and his brother, he also loses himself. And he must come to himself before he can come back to his father. Even in the far country, the younger son has already begun to find what he lost when he thinks about good and kind his father is, even to his servants and hired hands.