Lost

Twenty years ago, on my first trip to Israel, I got lost. It was during one of the days we were in the Old City of Jerusalem, and since there were several pastors on the trip, a small group of us decided we would go looking for a stole shop that one of the returning pastors knew about. (A stole is the cloth that many clergy wear around their necks indicating their ordination.) These were handmade stoles and were sold to benefit a children's home in Jerusalem.

So, off we went. Now, you have to get the picture. The Old City is crowded. Very few cars, but lots of people. Bumper to bumper people, you might say. Tourists and locals and adults and children and Muslims, Christians and Jews—all mashed together in a small space. And it's loud and sort of crazy, or at least it was on this day. It wasn't long before I lost sight of the rest of the group and there I was, in the midst of a strange place in a far-off land, wondering what I was going to do next. I had no idea where the stole shop was and I had no idea where the rest of our group was. (Twenty years ago was long before GPS showed up on our phones!)

Jesus once told a parable about someone who was lost—or actually, about a sheep that was lost. He challenged the people to think about a flock of one hundred sheep. What would you do, he asked, if one of them wandered off? Well, many people would be happy they still have ninety-nine sheep. At least they had only lost one. In today's business thinking, that's a reasonable margin, an acceptable loss.

But not to Jesus. And not to any good shepherd. Jesus says a decent shepherd will leave the ninety-nine and go out to find the one who was lost, so that the lost one can be found and can be made safe. This story, in Luke 15, has inspired songs and artwork galore, but the real power of the story is in the fact that the sheep is you and me. God was not content with all the sheep he already had; he wanted you and me. He always is looking for and trying to bring back that lost one.

I don't know if sheep feel joy or not, but I know I did when suddenly I looked up and found one of the other pastors who had come back to find me in the streets of Jerusalem. He had sent the rest of the group on, and he had come back to find me. I was grateful and relieved. I had been found.

And there's no better feeling than being found.


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