Parable of the Lost Sheep

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For i tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. 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 didn't wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones be lost." Matthew 18: 10-14

You know a good shepherdess of the Kingdom just HAD to have a lost sheep story to learn from. A few months ago, I had my chickens pecking about in the yard, when my daughter's dog went out and began to chase them. While trying desperately not to practice my excellent marksmanship skills on her, I put her in a kennel and began to access the damage. There were enough feathers strewn about to fill grandma's feather bed. I was just sick. My human heart began to work feverishly going over all my pity party thoughts... "it would be my luck that JUST as my hens started laying they'd all get killed," I shouldn't have had chickens to begin with because of the dogs," I never really wanted that stupid dog anyway... MY dog doesn't chase chickens."

Then I heard a "cluck." Oh what a marvelous sound! My heart began to race as I ran to the porch and began to follow the "clucks." There they were. Huddled safely under under the porch. A few hours later, they all came out and after further inspection were unharmed. At that time, I realized that I was missing a chicken. I searched all over the farm for her. No sign of black feathers, or anything else that looked like she had been killed, but where was she? I sat on the steps and started to pray to God over my lost chicken. I was praying selfishly at first. I know the Holy Spirit was sorting my thoughts quite similarly to the way I sort my mail over the trash can. Then He reminded me of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. My selfish, "help me find my chicken" prayers, turned to prayers of thanksgiving. "Thank you God for letting me be important enough to FIND me. Thank you God for my child being SO important that her angels ALWAYS see the face of God. And thank you for reminding me that even a chicken can teach this shepherdess a lesson."

We all have periods of being lost. Some of us are truly lost and do not know God. More often I think we are lost in the sense that we have lost touch with our Father, and our Christ, and our Holy Spirit. Sometimes for weeks or months, and sometimes for just moments in the day. God has put such an amazing "system" into our lives to help us walk this treacherous earth. A Holy Spirit inside of us to guide us, a Savior to die for us, and a Father to love us unconditionally... even when we are saying choice words about an obnoxious yellow dog that has chased our chickens' around. Every single person and every single second of our lives are important to God.

After much searching and learning about my Father's heart and the pain associated with losing just one of us, I found Betsy the chicken. She was playing dead in a bush. We walked back to the flock and reunited her with the others. Betsy's story doesn't end there, however. Three weeks ago, she began to sit on a pile of eggs. How fun that would be the week before Easter! But yet again, farm life "happened." About a week ago, she got an injury from one of the other dogs who was looking for chicken feed and eggs and found her on the nest. He just scratched her up a bit while trying to get her eggs... goodness knows if he had wanted her dead, she would have been instantly. (He is a 125 pound Rottweiler with a heart of gold). Two days later, she went on to chicken heaven. She sat her eggs the whole time, and then as if she knew we'd care for them, she died at the same time that she usually leaves the nest to eat. Josephine and I ran to the store and got an incubator and had a crash course in being a mother hen.

I now had 8 "lost sheep" in my charge! We checked fertility and viability (pretty cool... it's called candling and you put the eggs up to light and check the air sack and in lighter colored eggs you can see the baby chick). We discussed that it would be a miracle if they survived because of all that they have gone through and because we broke all the rules of incubation by tossing them in without regulating the temperature for half a day. We prayed over them. We turned them 4-6 times a day. We candled them daily. ...until yesterday. At 18 days, you stop so they can get in position to hatch. And then we waited... and waited... Early this morning, Frau (yet another dog) ran to the incubator as if to tell us something was happening. Over and over she broke out of her room and ran to the incubator. And over and over again, I checked the eggs... nothing. Then I saw it. The first little crack in the eggshell. (Still not hatched, but we'll post pictures and keep you up to date)!

Betsy's story didn't end at just being found in a bush or even when she went to chicky heaven. I know, I know, it's a chicken. But aren't we all like Betsy? We leave a legacy. We are all lost, those of us that believe are found, and then we leave a footprints on everyone we meet. Philippians 1:6 says "being confident in this that God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." Our Father loves us enough to search for us and long for us, but is our job to do his will, no matter the cost. We must have a willing heart, once found, to let God complete His beautiful work in us.