God loves us all. He never wanted us to
be lost.
12 “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? 13 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. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.-Matthew18:12-14
Some considered the shepherd foolish.
Why leave the 99 on the hills and look for one stray sheep? What is
one compared to ninety-nine? Such is God. His ways are not our ways,
His thoughts are not our thoughts. He makes crooked paths straight.
Our human tendency is always dictating
us to favor the majority over the minority. We choose the best,
strongest, most intelligent over the last, the weak and the dull. We
prefer the sinless, the perfect, the flawless, the saint, the good
ones. Good choices actually. Who in his/her right mind would prefer
the sinner, the imperfect, the flawed, the unrighteous, and the bad
lot? Normally, none would prefer it. And even if the sinner says, "I
have repented," none would take heed. If the flawed says, "I
am beautiful," no one would bother. And even if the worst of
mankind says, "I am converted," still it is difficult to
trust. It is easy to judge, to condemn and to cold-shoulder if we are
not the one being judged, condemned and/or cold-shouldered.
Each of us is much loved by God. He
doesn't love us because we are good only, but He continues to love us
with our imperfections, character flaws, weaknesses and despite our
sinfulness. He has long accepted us in both our strengths and
weaknesses. The more that we get lost, the more He would find us and
embrace us for "your Father in heaven is not willing that any of
these little ones should perish."
But how do we return God's love? Is it
by continuing to sin? Do we return God's love by tolerating our
wrongs because we are confident that we are forgiven still at the end
of the day?
Image courtesy: Mitchell Tolle (Lost
Sheep), artists
No comments:
Post a Comment