I’m constantly losing stuff ∙

I’m constantly losing stuff ∙

The Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost. – Luke 19:10

Luke 15:4-6

 4 If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?

 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

 6 When he arrives, he will call his friends and neighbors together, saying, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.”

The story is told of a lady in her 30s wearing a lanyard around her neck, holding her cell phone, and a small sign reading, “I’m a loser.” She used the lanyard to ensure she wouldn’t misplace her cell phone. We often find ourselves misplacing or losing items like car keys, credit card holders, cell phones, and clothing items such as hats and coats. However, in our modern tech-driven world, there is an answer.

Welcome to the realm of 21st-century digital trackers. Two of the most popular are Air Tags and Life360 Tile. These small, thin tiles act as trackers for objects with a knack for running off and hiding from us. They can be affixed to or discreetly placed on items like cell phones, keys, credit card holders, purses, or even loved ones and pets. Powered by batteries, they emit signals. To locate the missing items tagged with an heir tile our life 360 tile, you can simply enlist Alexa, Google, a computer, a tablet, or a cell phone.

In a similar way, the Father uses a celestial tracking system of His own intelligent design. In the timeless expanse of eternity, He affectionately and meticulously named and tagged each of His sheep before they were ever born. He intimately knows each one, with an identity crafted through His intelligent design, ensuring they are never lost to the vastness of time or space.

Isaiah 49:16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.

This evident anthropomorphism vividly portrays that the Father is intimately acquainted with our names, having metaphorically “inscribed” them onto the palms of His hands. This graphic imagery is intentionally powerful, designed to demonstrate that the Father will never forget us.

We are all born into this life as lost sheep. The Good Shepherd seeks His own until they are found, and He calls them to Himself.

A shepherd will go to great lengths to locate, nurture, and protect his flock. In the first century A.D. context, each shepherd possessed a distinct call that only his own sheep recognized. Upon hearing this call, his sheep would instinctively come to their shepherd. Other sheep would not.

In times when shepherds needed to enter towns or villages, they would gather their sheep in a communal enclosure alongside other flocks. To reclaim his own sheep from this mixed assembly, the shepherd merely needed to utter his unique call. Only his sheep would come forward to him while the rest remained amidst the larger flock.

John 10:2-5

 2 The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.

 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

This is the back story of a remarkable and beautiful promise made by the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 10:27-29

 27 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,  

 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.  

What is the call of the Good Shepherd? It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When His sheep hear this message, it has a life-changing impact. It transforms their very being. It echoes deeply within their hearts, urging them to respond to His call. Ultimately, they come to Him and receive the precious gift of eternal life.

It is a profound comfort to know and remember that, due to the Father’s immense love for us, the Lord Jesus Christ never ceases His search until we are found. He will relentlessly pursue us until we are safely in His embrace.

REFLECT & PRAY

The Father and the Son will always seek those that belong to them until they are found.

Father, I readily acknowledge that once I was lost, I was a very lost sheep. One day, I heard Your voice calling me and came to You. But sadly, even now, I tend to wander off. And repeatedly, You come looking for me, swoop me up in Your loving arms, and bring me home.

INSIGHT

When the Father created sheep, it might have been shortly after He fashioned owls. Perhaps the wisdom barrel was somewhat depleted by then. Evidently, sheep got the leftovers. Nevertheless, contemporary research questions this notion. In most cases, those responsible for the well-being of sheep discover that they are “not just stupid but mind-numbingly stupid.”

Even though we have come to the Good Shepherd and have been given eternal life as our present possession, never to be lost, we still have the temperament of sheep. We tend to stray and wander off. In the words of Robert Robinson:

Come, thou Fount of every blessing.

O 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.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

Isaiah 53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path,

We are continuously in desperate need of a shepherd to care for us, protect us, and find us when we lose our way. The Lord is our good Shepherd. We can be confident that He will come looking for us when we stray. When He finds us, He is delighted and joyful. He tells everyone, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” (Luke 15:6)

Every time the Father finds us, He offers us a fresh start. He provides a new beginning and an opportunity to distance ourselves from the past, embrace new possibilities, and be renewed and transformed.

Many would say that the best part of the journey is not the places we go and see but instead returning home. There is a poignant, pleasant joy when we return to where we belong: home.

For the children of the King, heaven is our permanent home. Although we have never been there, we know He has prepared a place for us. It is a place of joy, delight, and ultimate security. It is a happy place. It is the ultimate safe place. And we will dwell there forever, with our loving Shepherd King.

Are you still wondering about wandering?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6-21-1

© Dr. H 2024