Lost Sheep Found

This post is a follow up to an earlier post (March 6 - Baby Jesus is Buried).

This past week we've finally had some warmer weather, allowing much of the snow to melt away. The huge snow bank in front of the church began to receed enough that I was finally able to get the nativity scene removed. I was happy to find Jesus, a little wet and worse for wear, but still there at the feet of Mary and Joseph. When I was pulling out the various pieces I noticed the top of a metal post poking out of the snow bank. I wondered what was missing that I had forgotten about? A little more digging in the melting snow and I came across a little lost lamb! That discovery led to another lost lamb a few feet away. Two sheep lost and forgotten about, now along with baby Jesus they were found and there was a bit of rejoicing (as well as relief).

Ironically at the Lenten midweek service a couple weeks ago I preached on the parable of the lost sheep. Now here I was living it out (sort of), except I wasn't looking for the sheep - I was simply glad when I came across them. That is a huge difference between the parable and my experience - in the parable the shepherd leaves the 99 to look for the one lost sheep (showing the value of the lost sheep, and desire of the shepherd that not one should be lost). I didn't even know I had some lost sheep! All I can say is that I hope my pastoring skills are better than that. (The word 'pastor' comes from the Latin word for 'shepherd'.)

At least the nativity set is now put away for another year and we won't have people wondering why there is a nativity scene on display at Easter time!