LOST: One Sheep

I was working in my garage on a Wednesday and heard a police siren; which isn’t too unusual until it was joined by another and then another and then another and then another and then what sounded like fire trucks and ambulances.

I thought it must be some sort of ‘manhunt’ because the streets that surround our house are residential and an accident wouldn’t require that many emergency vehicles.

A short time later, Cathy called me from her school and asked if I had heard the news that something tragic had taken place in the park by our house.

So I turned on the television to see a reporter informing the viewers that a fun-filled elementary school field trip to a park had become a tragedy as the rain-soaked Mississippi River bluff 30 to 40 feet high crumbled, creating a landslide killing one child, injuring two other children, and leaving another buried beneath the fallen hillside.  The steep slope had been saturated with rain in recent days causing the rescue to be at times almost impossible.

In an effort to get to the children, rescue workers knocked on the doors of surrounding houses to plead for more shovels. For two days, helicopters filled the air…they became a constant reminder to keep praying as the rescue workers made their way through the waist high mud.

I cannot imagine the pain felt by all of those involved from the school, the families, and the rescue workers who searched for almost twenty four hours until on Thursday they eventually found the missing child; who was unfortunately dead.

Wednesday evening, we had some people over to our house for our weekly Bible study; which had been rescheduled from Thursday. The passage already picked out to study was The Parable of the Lost Sheep from Luke 15 which is:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:4-7 NKJV)  

As we discussed this passage, pondering just how much God searches for us when we are lost, the noise from the helicopters filled the air outside of our house once again reminding us that a desperate search was still under way for one individual who was lost.

We dialoged at how much money and time and effort was placed upon this situation. It didn’t matter whether there was money in the City of St. Paul West. St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Minneapolis, and the surrounding communities that sent over rescue personal and equipment. Seemingly nothing was too great of a price to pay to try and rescue this lost child.

Our conversation went back and forth between the rescue efforts that were taking outside in our neighborhood and contrasting it to the passage we were reading in Luke 15. All of this brought new revelation into the expense that was paid to rescue each one of us. 

Jesus Christ paid a great price to rescue us; He spared no expense. Your rescue and mine cost Him His life.  

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."