Today’s History Lesson…
In 1987 the town of Midland Texas was changed forever when 18 month old Jessica McClure fell down an abandoned well. 58 hours later she was rescued. Do you remember that day? Were you in a panic with the millions of others watching the live coverage on CNN?
Three years after that my mother went through the terror of the unknown, I imagine, just as Jessica’s parents did. I disappeared. She received a phone call from the police department stating that I had been taken from my father’s house. They told her to sit calmly and wait by the phone while they looked for me. If you were told your child had disappeared would your first reaction be to sit calmly by the phone? Mine neither. Obviously I was found.
But this reminds me of another story.
What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. – Matthew 18:12-14
God sits and waits for us every time we wander away – every time we fall into an abandoned well. We are his sheep. He doesn’t want to watch any of us go astray. You don’t have to wait 58 hours to be rescued from him, stuck in the terror and fear that controls your life. You don’t have to wait another second. He’s waiting now to pull you out of the pit.
Are you ready?