to bring you back

A good friend of mine was on the radio several months ago. She picked her top five Christian songs and shared them on a Christian radio station in Colorado, where she lives. Her number one song was a song called To Bring You Back by Paul Alan. Before then I'd never even heard of the artist, Paul Alan, much less the song. But I really liked the song from the first listening, so I bought it on iTunes. And lately, I've been listening to it a lot. It's basically a modern musical version of the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. The chorus goes,

I left the ninety-nine to find the one
and you're the one
I walked a thousand miles in the desert sun
Only to bring you back

The song made me think a lot more about the parable. Imagine for just a moment that you're a shepherd a couple thousand years ago, and you own a hundred sheep. In order to feed all of these sheep, you have to travel to a spot with enough grazing land that a hundred sheep can feed all day and not run out of grass. So you travel for several days until you reach a spot where your sheep can graze. It's a hard journey, because you only have a pair of sandals with thinning soles on your feet, and the ground is hard and rocky. The sun beats down on your head mercilessly as you travel, and as you sit there letting your sheep eat. Finally, it's time to take your herd back home for the winter. Maybe you'll sell some and sacrifice the most perfect one to the Lord. You're only a few hours from home, dirty, sweaty, tired, with bruised and battered feet, when you realize that you're missing one sheep. And this isn't just any sheep. No, this is the stubborn and ornery sheep that is constantly straying from the flock and forcing you to waste long hours searching for her. I know I wouldn't have to think long before making the decision to forget about her. After all, you have ninety-nine others! And the one sheep that you've lost is a constant irritation to you.

But consider this. Jesus didn't do that. All of us were at one time that sheep constantly straying from the loving care of the shepherd. But Jesus Christ didn't leave us to die alone and forgotten. He left the ninety-nine to find the one - and we're the one. Would you walk a thousand miles in the desert sun only to bring back that one wandering sheep? That's what Christ did. For us.