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| [Image by Soyrosa] |
In the silence of your room, you hold a novel. You straddle the pages and tease the 100th chapter. You twirl the next page with your fingers like a string on a guitar. The page feels cold. You close your eyes to bask in its coolness. You've read the previous 99 chapters, but this time you think you're on the verge of discovering something profound and so you shift from one side to the other on your bed, and your heart pumps more blood, faster than normal.
You weigh the pros and cons of the protagonist's actions, and then you judge the villain for his evil deeds. You try to guess what will happen. But what if it doesn't happen the way you envision? What if she dies? What if the truth becomes false? Or the false becomes real?
There you are on the edge. In the 100th chapter- the last one. But you don't want to go any further because you fear what you might find.
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The One About the 100th Person:
Jesus said in that parable, that the shepherd left 99 sheep to look for the 100th one. It was lost, somewhere between a rock and a hard place. It was stranded in a deserted place...an unknown location that was not once defined in the biblical text.
Realistically, the shepherd must have looked at his 99 sheep and weighed the pros and cons of leaving them to search for that lost one. Realistically, he must have thought that the chances of discovering the 100th sheep were very slim and that the risks were way too high. But he still did it. He left the 99 to look for the 100th sheep and rescue it.
What if you're the 100th person? Many times we want to point our fingers to "other" lost people. We see the destroyed buildings of Haiti, and we mourn their loss. We see orphans around the world, and we cry for them. We notice the innocent children in war-torn countries, and our hearts bleed. We review the genocides, and we wonder why. But hardly do we consider ourselves to be the 100th person.
Yes, many times we're the ones lost...stranded between a rock and a hard place. Not knowing what to do and fiddling with our insurmountable uncertainties.
But if it was only just for you, He would die all over again to save you. Every word in the bible is for YOU. It is for you to find peace. To find truth. To find love. To find God in your journey. At one point in my life, I was that 100th sheep and I'm thankful that He found me. I'm thankful that He rescued me, and removed my feet from the fowler's net & the miry clay. That He chose to look past my imperfections and called me by the name He gave me when I was born, not by what I thought I was. Each of us could very well be that 100th person. Don't point to someone else, point to yourself. No one is exempt from this eternity-long search.
YOU, are the 100th person God is searching for. Open your heart to Him today.
Question for the Day: Have you ever thought that you were the 100th sheep the shepherd went to find after leaving 99 behind? Or has the thought never crossed your mind?
