Lost Sheep

I was reading Luke 15 about the parable of the lost sheep.  You know how you have read verses many times and just read to be done with it.  That’s me.  That’s what I was doing.  But this time something made me stop and look at the verses differently.

“Suppose one of you have a hundred sheep and loses one.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts in on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep’. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  Luke 15:1-7

I realized Jesus was talking about me.  I was that sheep. I belonged to His flock.  How did I get lost?  Maybe the terrain was just too difficult and I was too tired to continue on.  I just lay down and quit.   Quit reading the Bible, quit going to church, quit ministry, quit connecting with others.  Some other sheep may have bumped me and I was hurt.  Whether they did it on purpose or not, I couldn’t get up.  I was hurt, angry and not willing to let it go.  There may have been weeds that I got all tangled up in.  Taking my eyes off Jesus can get me tangled up so easily in things that are not my business.  Something caught my attention and I wandered off chasing it, without even realizing how far I had wandered.  And then it was too late.

I grew up in rural Montana.  My family ranched.  I was the oldest and was probably spoiled until my cousins and siblings came along.  I have always been stubborn.  I don’t remember going to church often but I asked Jesus into my life when at church camp in the 4th or 5th grade.  I went to a one room schoolhouse for kindergarten and first grade, then a two room schoolhouse.  Most of the time I was the only kid in my class.  Seventh grade we had to go to junior high in town.  I had no real close friends and it was hard to fit in with kids that had been going to school since kindergarten.  I eventually made some really good friends.  I started going with a guy in high school and got pregnant between my junior and senior year in high school.  We were married and we had a baby girl in April of my senior year.  A couple of years later we had a little boy.  Kids trying to raise kids.  Stressful years.  Verbal abuse.  I was so lost.

We moved to a house on the ranch where my aunt, uncle and cousins were living.  Aunt Patsy started taking our kids to church and eventually we started attending also. Jesus had always been my savior but now He became Lord.  He found me and was taking me back to the flock.
 
There have been tough times but I have that relationship with God that no one can take away.  That relationship with God has helped me get my self-worth back.  God was there when my husband was killed in a vehicle/train accident.  A year later He brought a wonderful man into my life that never gave up on me or my kids.  God was there while raising kids through the teenage years.  He is the good shepherd and he cares for me, he feeds me and he protects me, even when the weeds of life try to entangle me.  He always comes to find me and He will always come to find you.  And there will be rejoicing in heaven!