the lost

I'm reading Luke 15 in preparation for family group tonight, and I think I've always thought this but never actually considered it. This verse:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

For the longest time, I've just thought, "Yeah, that makes sense." Of course, I'd go after that last sheep. But I was just thinking it about this, I realized that I definitely wouldn't. I already have 99 of them, why do I need the last one?

It's almost like when I do homeworks, projects, or tests....I'm entirely content with like a 80% as this point in my computer science career. I don't really care about the other 20%, as long as I'm about to obtain that first 80%, I'll be alright.

But to God? No, this isn't some grade to him, or even a percentage (as emphasized with the other parables in Luke 15 and the differing percentages), but simply about the LOST and the DEAD. When Jesus says the above, it's almost as if he's saying, "Doesn't the shepherd do that," like it's the totally natural thing to do. Of course the shepherd searches for the lost sheep and of course the woman searches for her lost coin. There's no question about it.

That is how God searches for the lost. I think that's how God wants us to search for the lost. It says when the woman searches for the coin, she "light[s] a lamp and sweep[s] the house and seek[s] diligently until she finds it."

Aren't we called to do at least as much as this woman searches for her coin to seek the lost?