Pursuing the lost sheep.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

There’s a mountain goat in this photo if you have the patience to look for it.

I hate looking for lost things. When I need a tool or that computer file that I just can’t find it turns my day miserable very fast. Worse yet is when I created the problem through foolishness. I once deleted files from an old tablet in order to clear it to give it to Jen (my wife). I thought I was being smart since the files were in a shared cloud folder. Yea, that’s right, I deleted them from the cloud folder which promptly erased them from all my devices. I was eventually able to recover them, but it was a solid day of sweating it out over that.

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”
Luke 15:3-6 New International Version

I think I would make a lousy shepherd. If I lose an object, frustrating as it is, I can take responsibility and accept the hardship of looking for it. But with animals and even some people I have no patience, I think I would be OK with them getting eaten by a wolf. “Hey sheep, you wander off, you pay the price.”

Thank God Jesus has more patience than that. Thank God He pursues me (and you) even when I knowingly wander away from Him. After the 573rd time wandering away from Him, I round a corner and there He is again, sitting there looking at me, opening His arms to me, head cocked slightly as if to say “My son, where have you been? I missed you. Come home with Me.”

Copyright photo and text by David Brukiewa