Day 24 Shepherd

 Josh came home on Sunday afternoon and on Sunday evening Keith Josh and I went to Sam and Ben's church for a carol service where the whole family was together, sitting side by side singing harmonies to some favourite carols.  And I thought that life doesnt get much better really.  One boy married to a lovely girl from a lovely family who adore Sam.  One boy home for the holidays from a job he is enjoying and the youngest thriving in the last year of his Uni course, having secured funding for a Masters next year. His lovely girlfriend Grace seems to be a permanent feature and we are all delighted about that.  Today, right now, everyone is healthy and happy and going well with Jesus.  Tomorrow that might change. But today I'm most definitely counting my blessings.

The carol service sermon focused on the shepherd.  Bethlehem being the city of David, the shepherd king.  The angels appearing to the poor and lowly.  Jesus the shepherd King being laid in a manger - all the usual things you'd expect to hear.  There was a mention of the lost sheep and the fact that Jesus leaves the 99 to find the one - and my mind went back a dozen years to a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is a farmer.  Ive told this story before but it stands a re-telling.   

My friend was due to go out on a very rare evening dinner date with his wife.  They were meeting friends at a posh restaurant  and were dressed up for the occasion.  As a farmer he really didnt get to go out or away much  because there were always animals to tend to.  So this was a bit of a treat he had promised his wife and they were very much looking forward to the evening.  It was in the winter so it was dark by the time they were ready to leave, and the weather was pretty stormy.   Rain was lashing.  But that wasnt going to stop them having a great night out. Just as they were leaving the house and about to get into the car someone pulled up into their drive.  It was a neighbour.  He jumped out of his car and ran over to them shouting that some of my friends sheep had got out of the field.

When I heard this I thought - well surely you asked the neighbour to help get the sheep back.  Or you went to dinner and then sorted it out when you got back.  Or you left them till the morning.  But no. Thats not what happened.  My friend apologised to his wife ( who went back inside) and, dressed in his best suit and nice shoes, he went off over the fields in the lashing rain to find the strays.  I asked why.  He said two things. 1) sheep arent the brightest animals and the field from which they had escaped was bordered by a river.  Had they been left to their own devices he was sure at least one of them would have ended up in the water and would have drowned.  The weight of their wool just pulls them down.  2) His sheep knew his voice.  It wasnt much good asking the neighbour to round them up.  He knew that once he had located them he could pretty quickly get them back into the field because his sheep knew and trusted him.  Especially in a storm when they would have been frightened and disorientated. 

So off he went in the pitch black, pouring rain to find the lost sheep.  By the time he had rounded them up and then fixed the fence he had well and truly missed his dinner.  

I hadnt thought about this story for a long time, but the carol service on Sunday night brought it right back to my mind.  All the shepherds in the Bible are there to point us to Jesus.  Moses, the fugitive in the backside of the desert who encountered God in the burning bush and went on to shepherd a nation out of captivity.  David the boy who fought off the lion and the wolf keeping his flock safe, so that later he could fight the giant and keep his nation safe.  Men watching their flocks by night who witnessed the heavens declaring the glory of God and saw that glory manifest in the face of a baby.  And Jesus, the lamb who was slain from before the foundation of the world so that He could call my name, rescue me from the pit, set my feet on a rock and put His praises in my mouth.    Jesus was wearing His best suit.  He was sitting at a banquet in heaven when He heard that I was lost.  He left the presence of the Father and the angels and got his feet wet and His hands dirty in order to rescue me. 

Hallelujah.  




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