The Good Shepherd Came For You

Think of a time in your life when you felt painfully small or forgotten. Think of a time when you felt far from loveable. Think of a time when you dwelled in darkness—when you felt more lost, broken, or irredeemable than you ever had before.

It was in that very moment—in your deepest darkness, in your furthest wandering—that your Savior, your Good Shepherd, came after you.

“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? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12-14, ESV).

It was in the face of our deepest sin and darkness that our Good Shepherd took on flesh and entered into his own creation as a child—humbled, scorned, and lowly—to bring his lost sheep home. And even if you had been the only sheep of his flock, he would have come for you. He watches over you, he rejoices in you, he saves you, and he keeps you.

Today, may we choose to remember our Good Shepherd’s coming. And may we celebrate our magnificent Savior, who could not stand for us to perish, so who came to be born in our place and save us from our wandering.

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15, ESV).