“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off” (Matthew 18:12-13).
Sheep don’t wake up in the morning and think, “I’ll really give the shepherd a scare today.” They just tend to wander. It’s not as though they intend to jeopardize their lives; they just nibble their way into trouble. Not aware of danger, they focus on the next clump of grass. That’s why they need shepherds. No animal needs care more than a sheep does. They are defenseless on their own.
The Bible compares us to sheep because that is what each of us is like. We tend to wander directionless and need a Shepherd to watch over us. Isaiah pointed that out. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). It is important for us to grasp the phrases “we all” and “each of us.” No one is immune from the tendency to wander. Each of us had wandered away and the shepherd Jesus described came looking for all of us.
One reason Psalm 23 is so special to us is that we know what it means to be lost and then found. “The Lord is my Shepherd” is a comfort to every one of us who has wandered and been carried to safety in the arms of the Good Shepherd. He will not leave us at the mercy of our circumstances. He restores our souls. He intervenes to face our enemy for us. In fact, that’s what He did at the Cross.
Never overlook the value of a single person. Heaven rejoices with each lost sheep that is found. When anyone opens his or her heart to the love of Jesus heaven throws a party. We love to see crowds worshiping. I am certain that God loves that, too. But in the midst of the crowds, God has the capacity to see one person, and, for that person, it can be a life-changing moment.
