The One That Wandered Away. . .

Special Request from Pastor Eric: I want to send a special message to you all, my WeekdayWord.net family before I make the following information fully public.  I have been diagnosed with cancer in my colon.  I had/have no symptoms; it was caught with a routine colonoscopy.  My medical team is confident that it is probably contained in my colon (after a CT and MRI). They will not know for sure until after I have surgery. They will remove a section of my colon and reattach the colon. They will also remove several lymph nodes to test to see if there is any spreading. My wife Barbara, and I met with the surgeon this morning and we are looking at surgery the week after Easter.  I am told that we will not know if any follow-up treatment will be needed until about a week after surgery.  If it is needed, it will not be started until after I have fully healed after surgery (4-6 weeks).  Our families have been told and now I am telling you, our extended family.  We’re all very positive at this point because it seems it has been caught early and my prognosis is good.
  I want to ask that you commit to pray for me and my family over the next several weeks as we prepare for this surgery and recovery.  I do believe in the power of prayer and so this is the best way for you to help in the coming days.  I thank you in advance for that. 
    I will let you know when I have a specific date for surgery (I should know later this week). And now, for today’s reflection. . .

Matthew 18:12-14 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?  If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.  So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

God is not like so many people who work very hard at keeping what they have.  Of course, God would leave the ninety-nine to find the one.  The ninety-nine WERE that one at one time.  And they know that this is who God is. They are glad about that, for God came for them. To stretch the metaphor a bit more, Jesus, in effect, invited the more mature sheep to join him in looking for the lost one.

I’m glad God comes looking when I wander off.  I’m amazed that He even notices that I’m gone. That is a part of the significant beauty of this story Jesus tells.  The story on the surface seems to describe God as one who is biased toward the lost. After all, he will leave the flock behind to find them.  But under the obvious surface is a God who NOTICES when one wanders away.  That means God is carefully watching all the sheep. God notices the straggler, the self-willed, the clueless, and the rebellious wandering away.  You and I are noticed by the God of the universe.

Another striking feature of this story is the joy of the find.  Because God is soooo about finding the lost, God is also soooo consumed with the joy of the find.  Again, the ninety-nine aren’t upset about this as long as they remember how consumed with joy God was when they were found.  God is, in fact, biased toward the lost, but we tend forget that we were ever lost.  I sometimes don’t even notice when I’m lost now.  But, in this moment, I’m comforted by the thought that even when I don’t notice, God does and God will be so happy when I’m found.  The same is true for all of you and for everyone else too.  That’s what God’s divine bias looks like.

Question:  What do you see in this beautiful story that Jesus tells?

Prayer:  Lord, we are all the object of your biased love and concern.  Thank you for that!  Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those that have wandered away from faith.

Song: One of my favorites from Audio Adrenaline. I think they sound like the Beatles in this one.

Ninety-Nine – Audio Adrenaline