Our heavenly Father’s love is extravagant and outrageous. Not one of us can fully understand it, because it just doesn’t make sense in a world where love and respect must be earned and merited. On top of that, people of faith are pretty much overlooked and underappreciated. Jesus knew it well and referred to them as “little ones” (vs. 10). The world doesn’t turn to the “little ones” much. It seeks the best of the best, and the leader of leaders, and the master of masters.
In God’s economy everything gets turned upside down, or maybe right-side up. The love of the Father goes beyond rhyme or reason to embrace His “little ones.” Jesus explained this in terms of a shepherd in charge of 100 sheep. Suddenly, he recognizes that one of the sheep is missing. So, the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes in desperate search for that one sheep.
It doesn’t make sense does it? Why leave the 99 in search of the one? I can’t answer the question fully. I only know that when someone you love is missing, it captivates your imagination and you do all in your power to bring that missing one home. Logic fails. Reasoning fails. There are no acceptable losses. Love wins. I think the song writer had it right when he wrote,
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. |
How marvelous! How wonderful! and my song shall ever be: How marvelous! How wonderful! is my Savior’s love for me! (Charles H. Gabriel, 1905) |
When you know that you are the one wandering sheep, and that God goes on a desperate search for you, you stand amazed. You just have to. It is mindboggling, astonishing, and bewildering. It is, as John Newton wrote, “Amazing Grace.”
Lent reminds us that God comes near, right now, into the midst of the very real world in which you and I live, and dwells here with us. He is watching over the sheep of His pasture. He knows when one of us is missing or hurting or lost. He doesn’t wish one of us to perish but to be at home in His forever family.
Father,
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be; Let that grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee”(Robert Robinson, 1758).
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