Me: What is your friend’s name?
Prodigal: I already told you.
Me: Sorry, sometimes I forget, but I know someone who does not.
This is from the book God Will Make a Way: Stories of Hope
Shepherds in the Middle East name their sheep. While an occasional lamb might be killed for a festive occasion, sheep are kept primarily for their wool. Shepherds develop a close and long-term relationship with the sheep under their care.
A man visiting the Middle East could not believe that sheep actually knew their own names, so he challenged a shepherd he met to call one or two of his sheep. The shepherd obliged and called out “Neriah.” One of the sheep grazing nearby stopped eating and looked up. When the shepherd called out, “Come here,” the sheep came immediately. He called another and another, and each did just as the first.
“But how can you tell them all apart?” the visitor asked. “To me, one looks just like the next.”
The shepherd said, “Oh, no two are alike. Look closely. That sheep has lost a little bit of wool. That one is a little cross-eyed, this one is a little bowlegged, that one has a black spot on its nose.” The visitor noted that the shepherd knew each of his sheep by their faults and failings. He didn’t have a perfect sheep in his flock. Nevertheless, he cared for them and loved them equally.
How comforting to know that our heavenly Father sees us as we are and still loves us and cares for us. He knows each of us inside and out. He delights in our uniqueness, including those qualities that still are being perfected! We are not “just another person with a need or a fault” to Him. We are His dear children, whom He is helping in every way He can to grow up and be like Jesus.
In all that we need, and all that we lack, may we turn to Him.
For all that He gives, and all that He calls us to do, may we thank Him.
With all that we are, and with all that we have, may we praise Him!
The sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. John 10:3-4 (NKJV).
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
