¹² What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? (Matthew 18:12 ESV)

To a business person, this scriptural math may not make sense. I may not seem reasonable to leave the 99 sheep we have to search for the one gone astray. But this is human thinking. We would stay with where the majority of our money is, in the 99 and consider the stray as the cost of doing the sheep business.

But, luckily, God does not see His sheep in this way. He comes after the strays. And I, for one, am happy for this. I feel like I have been the stray at times in my life and God did not abandon me. For this I am so grateful!

Throughout life how many people have we written off as strays? How may fell by the way side because we were unwilling to leave the safety of the 99 to find the 1. People come in and out of our lives. Thinking back to many old friends and acquaintances I can see every face. I miss many of them. Have I always been a good friend? No, not necessarily. I lost touch as much as they did. But I cared for them then and I care for them now. But if we are honest, we often just let people go. We lose touch, we let the strays go.

God never loses touch. Even if you have gone as far away from God as you can, you are never lost. Every stray has a place in God’s eternal home. Come home.