I do not know anything
about the behaviour of sheep but wonder whether a lamb is more likely to stray
than an adult sheep? It often happens with animals, including the human animal,
that the young ones can easily go wandering. They do not understand danger and
need to be guided, and sometimes restrained, by the adults who do know where
dangers lie.
If this is true also
of sheep it might explain why, in Matthew’s gospel, we find the parable of the
lost sheep coming immediately after Jesus’ praise of children, an association
of ideas. In Luke’s gospel it comes just before the parable of the prodigal
son, as another example of ‘almost unbelievable (and foolish) compassion’, a
shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep where they are in order to go searching for
one stray.
If the Lord’s care for
His people is at least as strong and tender as that of human parents – and we
believe it to be infinitely stronger and infinitely more tender – then it is
not difficult to believe that He keeps all His flock in view and that He does
this at all times. It is what Moses says to the people in the moment in which
he takes leave of them – do not fear, the Lord is with you. It is what he says
to Joshua a moment later – fear not for the Lord is with you. It is how God had
defined Himself when He revealed His name to Moses – I am who I am, I am the
One who will be with you.
The Lord is with His
people at all times just as He attends to His creation at all times. It is not
just the leaders of the people that win his attention but each individual
member of it, even the ones we would regard as the least, the ones we would
overlook (the child) or allow to wander off (cut our losses to be happy with ninety-nine
sheep).
The characteristic of
the child to which Jesus points is humility, precisely the characteristic that
could lead to it being overlooked and even to getting lost. Jesus teaches us
that the heavenly Father is not susceptible to such inattention but His care
reaches everywhere and to everyone. He had spoken of it earlier in
Matthew’s gospel, ‘every hair on your head has been counted’ (Matthew 10:30).
The Father’s care and
attention reach even the ones we are inclined to ignore. Held in this way
in God’s gaze, these little ones are great, perhaps even the greatest, radiant in the joyful early
morning sunlight of the Father’s love.
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