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Brought Back by the Shepherd, July 19
As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that
are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
Ezekiel 34:12
.
The sheep that has strayed from the fold is the most helpless of all creatures. It
must be sought for by the shepherd, for it cannot find its way back. So with the soul
that has wandered away from God; he is as helpless as the lost sheep, and unless
divine love had come to his rescue he could never find his way to God.
The shepherd who discovers that one of his sheep is missing does not look
carelessly upon the flock that is safely housed, and say, “I have ninety and nine, and
it will cost me too much trouble to go in search of the straying one. Let him come
back, and I will open the door of the sheepfold, and let him in.” No; no sooner does
the sheep go astray than the shepherd is filled with grief and anxiety. He counts
and recounts the flock. When he is sure that one sheep is lost, he slumbers not.
He leaves the ninety and nine within the fold, and goes in search of the straying
sheep. The darker and more tempestuous the night and the more perilous the way,
the greater is the shepherd’s anxiety and the more earnest his search. He makes
every effort to find that one lost sheep.
With what relief he hears in the distance its first faint cry. Following the sound,
he climbs the steepest heights, he goes to the very edge of the precipice, at the risk
of his own life. Thus he searches, while the cry, growing fainter, tells him that his
sheep is ready to die. At last his effort is rewarded; the lost is found. Then he does
not scold it because it has caused him so much trouble. He does not drive it with a
whip. He does not even try to lead it home. In his joy he takes the trembling creature
upon his shoulders; if it is bruised and wounded, he gathers it in his arms, pressing it
close to his bosom, that the warmth of his own heart may give it life. With gratitude
that his search has not been in vain, he bears it back to the fold.
Thank God, He has presented to our imagination no picture of a sorrowful
shepherd returning without the sheep. The parable does not speak of failure but of
success and joy in the recovery. Here is the divine guarantee that not even one of
the straying sheep of God’s fold is overlooked, not one is left unsuccored. Every
one that will submit to be ransomed, Christ will rescue from the pit of corruption
and from the briers of sin (
Christ’s Object Lessons, 187, 188
).
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