What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing: And coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.
Luke 15:4-7
What a comforting thought for a poor sinner like me? That if I should go astray, Jesus will come for me. The Gospels are right to compare us to sheep. It is a fitting analogy. A sheep doesn’t go astray from the flock because it thinks it’s better to be on its own; it goes because it perceives the grass to be greener somewhere else. But once on its own and away from the flock, reality sets in. The sheep is now alone and in worse shape than before it left the flock. On its own, the sheep is sure to perish.
We are a lot like sheep. We do not choose to sin and fall away from God because we think God is bad; no, we choose to sin because we perceive the sin to be good. We think that by choosing to sin, our lives will be better off. No one would choose to sin if they thought it would lead to their death. Like the sheep, when we choose to sin and fall away from God, we choose to leave Him, and when we leave God, reality once again sets in, and we are alone and in worse shape than before. Sin often leads to other sins and a snowball effect. Much like the sheep’s bad decisions, lead to its situation becoming much worse.
Luckily for us, God loves us no matter what. Jesus seeks us out when we go astray, just like he seeks us out when we first come to him. It’s not because we can find our own way back, but because the Good Shepherd seeks us out that we return to God. We learn from this parable in Luke’s Gospel (and also recorded in Matthew’s Gospel) that God never ceases to call us back to him. To seek us out and return us to the flock. Jesus does this with so much fervor and love that he says “Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost”.
The God of the universe, the creator of all things, will search for you even if you do not want to be found. He continues to call your name. No matter how far you have gone astray, He seeks YOU out.
God loves you, and if you hear his call and return to him there shall be “joy in heaven”.