Feed my sheep...

So maybe it is the season...perhaps just the day.   But at my kitchen table this morning our shepherd on call...P-Pa...was out mixing up a special concoction for a sick mama ewe.   This is a special Southdown and she is not doing well.   He tells me the doc says that maybe you SAVE 1 in 20 who suffer with pregnancy toxemia...and I think of in the Bible of the 1 in 100--Luke 15:4 (NIV).

  ⁴"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

And I ponder on that and how important if even one is saved.   That believing in Jesus if one is saved and I think of those who I pray for everyday...those that their souls be saved.   I hope and have faith that they would have Eternal Life with the Great Shepherd.

So I head off to work...(did I mention that God sometimes just keeps giving me message and keeps giving me messages not that it takes more for me or anything).   But back to the radio, the whole thing was on the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).   The story told by Jesus of the two brothers and one leaves with his half of the family fortune and squanders it away while the other stays and obeys.   Yet when he is down to his lowest point he goes back to his father and his father welcomes him with open arms.  And the older brother is upset with this and asks his father why to which his father's reply is Luke 15:31 (NIV):

 ³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

And again I come back to the one...perhaps this is 1 in 2 but it is ONE.   ONE that is what I am!   But this lesson doesn't end there.   My friend Mary sends me words for the day from a devotional she has received I believe from USCCB.org...but these words just seemed to go with the theme...

"Our Shepherd doesn’t wait anxiously for straying sheep to return. Rather, he arms himself and sets out in search of them, overcoming every obstacle to rescue them and bring them home. Sometimes his kindness feels like discipline as he cuts the lamb loose, dresses its wounds and curbs its propensity to wander. But it is still the kindest thing he could ever do for us.

Jesus, our Good Shepherd, knows us (John 10:14; 2 Timothy 2:19). He feeds us (John 6:35; Psalm 23:1-2). He guides us (John 10:3-4; Psalm 23:3). He cherishes us and loves us (Isaiah 40:1; Ephesians 5:25-29). He protects and preserves us (Jeremiah 31:10; John 10:28-29). Take some time today to pray over these passages. Try to memorize them and make them your own. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the depth and breadth of love that Jesus has for you. Nothing could be more exciting—and more comforting—than knowing that Jesus has you in the palm of his hand!

Jesus, thank you for seeking me when I stray from the path. Teach me how to shepherd those you have entrusted to my care."

And so I am learning that my kitchen table just keeps getting bigger and bigger.   I finished up a journal while at my cousin's house (another blog in progress but have to scan some pictures)...but anyway like the words from above...it isn't just at my kitchen table...it is wherever I am...He is WITH me!  And that gives this ONE "lamb" peace and joy...

lyp