“If you see a cow or sheep wandering around lost, take the animal back to its owner. If the owner lives too far away, or if you don’t know who the owner is, take the animal home with you and take care of it. The owner will come looking for the animal, and then you can give it back. That’s what you should do if you find anything that belongs to someone else. Do whatever you can to help, whether you find a cow or sheep or donkey or some clothing.” (Deuteronomy 22:1-3 Contemporary English Version)
In preparation for Monday’s Tutoring and Mentoring session at out church, I went to a thrift shop to look for a children’s book that would be good to teach our elementary students something of value during the mentoring portion of our session. As you can imagine, there were hundreds of discarded, donated books designed for young readers. I could have spent hours going through the numerous books on the shelves. looking for one that had an appropriate lesson. I “could have,” but I didn’t. The very first book I pulled out was entitled “Found,” a bedtime story by Saline Yoon. I don’t think that I just got lucky, but rather I got blessed quickly. “Found” was not only suitable for the specific targeted audience, elementary students, but it was based on the Scripture above, and thus there had to be something profitable for you and me. “Found” was about a bear who found a toy bunny in the forest. After the bear’s diligent, devoted, but futile efforts to find the owner, the bear took the toy bunny home. The bear got attached to the toy bunny, but one day the owner, a moose showed up, delighted that he had found his toy bear. The bear, tears rolling from his eyes, gave the toy bunny back to its rightful owner. The owner saw how much affection the bear had for the toy bunny. So, the moose gave it back to the bear with the condition that the bear would take good care of it. The bear pledged to take care of it forever and the bear was lost no more. The bear was found.
After reading the book, before packing it in my book bag to take to church, I looked at the cover and saw the Old Testament Scripture that you read above, all be it from a different translation than I normally use. Nevertheless, It was still the inspired word of God.
Here was my takeaway and my motivation for sharing this experience with you, fellow believers. We all know some of the Lord’s sheep that have wandered and lost their way. We describe their predicament by such terms as “straying” or “drifting.” The description is not my focus, but I am focused on the fact that we need to bring the wandering, lost, back home, back to the church, and back to a strong, developing relationship with the Lord. And then, we need to take good care of them, and perhaps, different than the story above, we need to take care of them until the Lord comes back. If your first efforts to help bring the lost sheep that was wandering away back to the point of being found, keep trying. Develop brotherly or sisterly affection for the sheep. That should be a priority since Jesus told us to love one another, and John wrote in his epistle, “We know that I have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and the sisters.”
When the lost become found, do your part to make sure they do not wander away and become lost again! Emulate the example of our Eternal Father, who is a very present help. You be of help too! Oh, and by the way, the Owner of the sheep, the Good Shepherd, He will come again one day, and He will smile at you and say, “Well done!” And if you need further motivation, remember how somebody found you wandering one day and brought you to a place where you could eventually say with joy, in the words of John Newton, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I once was lost, but now I’m found!”
Have a terrific Tuesday. Make it a “Hallelujah Day” and not a “Halloween Day.” Smile! Be blessed!
“And so He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.” (Luke 15:3-7 NASB)
Mark L. King