One of my co-workers has not been feeling well. Funny how an empty desk speaks volumes. And while we have continued to function and work and flow, that empty desk reminds me, someone is missing.
I guess that is why Jesus made such a point about the 1 lost sheep. Because even though there were 99, the one sheep left a spot that couldn’t be filled by anyone else. That one empty desk…that one empty chair…that one empty heart…that one.
Luke 15:4 – 5 tell us, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”
I’m a people watcher. I love to watch the way they eat, dress, walk, interact with one another, sit, stand, use their hands. I simply adore looking at people. There was a lady who sat outside her house in her garden. For months I would pass by her house and wave. I didn’t know her name. I didn’t know why she sat in her garden every day. If it was raining, she sat on her porch. Did she have children? I don’t know. Was she married? Have no idea. How old was she? Not sure. If I had to guess, probably in her 80’s.
But one day, she wasn’t there. And the next day, she wasn’t there. The third day I saw someone in her yard and I stopped. After a brief explanation of why I was there, I learned she had passed away.
Her family lived a great distance away.
I see.
She didn’t have a church home that anyone knew of.
Oh.
She didn’t receive many visitors. This person had been her neighbor for many years and they’d probably spoken only a handful of times.
Did she have anyone to talk to?
Jesus asked us to “Feed my lambs” ( John 21:17).
If we are feeding the sheep, then we know when one is lost. If we know one is lost, we need to go and find that lost one and bring him/her home.
Who are you not seeing? Who is missing at your work? Whose house do you walk by every day and know nothing about? Who in your family needs to know you care? Who do you look at every day but not see?
Today I challenge you not just to look at people but see them. Miss them. Welcome them. Love them. Need them. Value them. Feed them.
Jesus is real. Tell them.
