We have a couple American Guinea Hogs (basically a mini pig) that I am attempting to raise for breeding and eating purposes. They like to escape their pasture from time to time, and usually our dog will round them up or I will bring some feed out to them and they will follow me back into the fenced area. Last Saturday one made his way out and I led him back in. Not 20 minutes later he was out again! This time the dogs spooked him and he went running off into some brush. Some forty acres of brush! In my experience pigs are not like chickens, they don’t come home at dusk, so I knew I had to go find him! I called my mother and she picked me up on her side by side and we headed off in the direction of the pig. We had almost given up when our dog decided to lead us right to him. His legs were stuck in mud and he was burrowed under a thick patch of thorns. I did not wear the right shoes for this event.
But still I knew if I didn’t get him now then he might make his way in further and I wouldn’t be able to get to him. Oh yeah, and it started raining too! I battled thorn and rain and sunk my ankle booties into red clay mud but when I got to my little pig, I grabbed him up and I couldn’t have been happier that he was going to be alright. Because truthfully I had already thought of worst case scenario. Needless to say, when he was safely back in the pen, my husband secured the entire perimeter of the fence, since we weren’t sure where he escaped from. All of that to say the parable of the lost sheep has never meant so much to me.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”
Matthew 18:12-14 NLT
I have read that many times before, and I can remember the first time I read it years ago, I couldn’t understand the reasoning behind leaving ninety-nine sheep shepherd-less, when only one would be lost. It seemed more important to me to make sure the entire herd didn’t get lost. How could he love that one sheep more than all the others? Then I learned that the shepherd wasn’t leaving the ninety-nine alone, they had each other! And he didn’t love that one sheep more, he would have went looking for any one of those sheep had they strayed from the herd.
How important it is that we connect ourselves with true Christian friends who can be there for us when it’s hard to see the Shepherd. He is always there but sometimes we can’t see him, if we surround each other and stick together until our Good Shepherd appears, we are made stronger. We were all once the lost sheep, and maybe you have been feeling like a lost sheep lately. I promise you, Jesus will rejoice over your return, even if you have had your feet stuck in mud and buried under a thorn bush, even if He just saved you twenty minutes earlier. He will save you again and again. He knows the worst case scenario and He will do anything to keep you from it. If you need a fellow sheep to stand by you and lift you up during dark times, I would love to be there for you.
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