I once lost my passport. I guess this wouldn’t have been Armageddon if I hadn’t been two weeks away from a trip to Australia. My flight was booked. My university fees in Australia were paid. I had gone for medical tests. I had gone for finger printing. I had visited the agency in Durban which had sent my passport to Pretoria for my student visa. I found every last document required by the Australians in order to let me to enter the country for a year. And then I lost my passport.
I looked everywhere. My parents, who I was staying with at the time, looked everywhere. We phoned all the places I had been. We traced our steps, and retraced our steps, and went over every conversation and moment the passport had featured in. Nothing. Eventually, out of pure desperation, we decided to try and apply for an emergency passport to get me on that plane. Don’t forget, we now had to apply for a visa on the emergency passport. The process usually takes forever. I had less than two weeks – it couldn’t take forever. Somehow we needed to get Home Affairs to make things happen at triple speed. Quadruple speed. The speed of light. Very, very fast.
To this day I don’t know how we managed to get all the relevant parties to come to the plate. Prayer and begging, I suppose. The day before I was due to get on the 10:30 am flight to Sydney, Australia, my passport arrived via courier. I also found my passport behind my bed at my uncle’s house in Durban. It had slid down the side of the wall and been left underneath the bed. My family has never let me live it down.
Losing something which you value is a horrible and frustrating feeling. Know what I mean? Something in the pit of your stomach heaves and goes “nooooo”. The Bible it tells us this is how Jesus feels about each of us. He tells us the story of a shepherd in a field who loses one of his sheep:
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” – Luke 15 1-7
You are the lost sheep
Yes, you! Jesus really does love you. Not because you’re cool. Or because you really aced your last report. Or because your mom and dad love you. But because you are you, and you are valuable. God desperately wants you to come home to the rest of the sheep. He wants to protect you and look after you. He doesn’t want you wandering alone.
Jesus is the shepherd
Do you see how tenderly the shepherd cares for his sheep? He was delighted to have the sheep back. When you return to him, he isn’t angry about all the things you did or the time you were away. He’s simply overjoyed to have you back. Jesus says this: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Don’t forget the lambs
We get so comfortable in our fold we often forget there are other people who need to be rescued. If we have seen God’s goodness, then we should show this to others. We should allow God to use us to reach the lost sheep and bring them home.
There is no way to put a price on a human life, or on a relationship with your maker. Remember you are a most precious thing. God will look to the ends of the earth for you. Even under a bed!