Lost Sheep
12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:12-14
One morning I ran errands at multiple stores after visiting my chickens at their coop and walking my dog throughout my muddy yard. I have a little habit of clutching my icon medallion when I’m thinking heavy thoughts and sometime after this busy morning, I reached up to grasp the medallion and discovered it was gone. I ran my fingers along the length of the chain but there was nothing. The bail must have come loose which made the medallion fall off the chain. There was almost no likelihood of finding it.
When I lost the icon medallion, my first momentary reaction was a sense of acceptance. It would be natural to be a little upset, right? But I wasn’t. I felt really calm about it, and I simply felt that if God wanted me to have the icon, it would come back on its own. Otherwise, maybe someone else needed it now. This reaction is not a normal one to me, but it’s how I felt.
For the next few weeks, sometimes I would think about the loss of the icon medallion, but those thoughts would always be accompanied by a sense of calm.
One Friday I moved my coffee table to vacuum under it, and you can guess what I found! There was the icon medallion lying where it had fallen. My first thought was that I was glad I wasted no energy on worrying and that it felt like a lesson from God for me to not worry about things I can’t fix.
That Sunday, our family visited a church in Knoxville. The priest was talking about how we all have loved ones who seem lost and disinterested in God like the lost sheep. I thought of all the clever things I’ve tried to say to bring the lost sheep in my life back to Christ and how it seems to have no effect.
Then the priest said something that connected with me. He said that Christ loves the lost sheep in our lives, He knows their hearts and He comes to find them when they are most ready to be found.
I thought about my medallion which was lost and then suddenly found in a very safe spot. The medallion was a simple thing, not as important as a person, but it gave me a lesson in not being frantic about something lost.
I was a lost sheep myself. As a teenager, people at my church tried to frighten me into Christianity, and it hardened my heart. But other Christians showed me simple kindness and helped me when I was truly lost. Later, when my life had fallen apart, by God’s grace I made one brave, good decision that set me on a different path. For the first time in years, I began to consider God in my choices, and that marked the beginning of my transformation. Not long after, my childhood best friend asked how my relationship with Christ was going. She does not remember saying it, and at the time I brushed the question aside, but it stayed with me. Her quiet confidence that a relationship with Christ was possible made me believe it might be possible for me too. Through the grace of many people and my discovery of C.S. Lewis’s books, I eventually reached a point where I was ready. Christ found me then and began bringing me back into His fold.
Even though I was very young, I resisted God for a long time and maybe some of you did too, but if God met us where we were, He will also meet those we love. Of course, we all have to choose Christ which is why we should pray for others and be open to sharing the hope of our faith, but we can have rest in knowing His love is abundant, and maybe we could try trusting in that for those we love.