Parents, are you acting like sheeple? My mother was always involved in our church... teaching, serving, hosting, whatever was needed. She always enjoyed helping. One year she took the Middle School Vacation Bible School class. It happened to be when my sister and I and a neighbor girl were in Middle School. Mom was creative and wanted to do something fun, hands-on and different than a flannelgraph. There were some kids in the group who had not heard the stories of Jesus and she wanted them to know who He is and how much He loves them. Though we had an old 8 MM movie camera that we used to capture family events, she decided to do the “oh so cool” at the time, 1970’s slide show thing because we had a new fancy camera she wanted to use. She loaded us up and took us all to our mini-farm, dressed us all up as disciples and Jesus followers and told the Jesus story through slides. She had Jesus, played by a neighbor girl with dark hair and a fake beard, walking on water. She had us put rocks just under the surface of the water and had the girl playing Jesus stand on them, giving the illusion of “walking on water.” She had Jesus teaching the sermon on the mount with all the kids around Him listening. And she had Jesus teaching about pursuing the one lost sheep and the great joy when the lost sheep is found. In the field next to our mini-farm was a flock of sheep from the University of Tennessee College of Agriculture. The only problem was the sheep had numbers on them for testing purposes. It looked like a mattress commercial. When the slide show was displayed, we all cracked up seeing the sheep with numbers on them. We were all looking for sheep #100, because Jesus had “left the 99.” Did I mention that the girl Mom chose to be Jesus was one of the kids from our neighborhood who didn’t know Jesus? Did I mention that my Mother knew this young lady had begun to do some things in middle school that would lead her down some dark paths if she continued? This young lady, like all of us, wanted to belong and be accepted, so she became like sheeple who were doing all those things that kids in their own wisdom thought would make them feel included, accepted, validated, and loved somehow. In the end all those behaviors would turn up empty, void of good, and lead to aloneness. Did I also mention that Mom picked this girl up each day to ride with our family to VBS? There was a bit of irony here that possibly sheep #100 was the girl that Mom had selected to play the One who leaves the 99 to find sheep #100. Mom had a heart for the lost sheep, because someone had pursued her at the same age and told her about Jesus.
Jesus is all about belonging. He loves us and is always glad to be with us. We are His and He is ours. He will hunt us down to be with us… Luke 15:3-7 says, “So he told them this parable: “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.” Sheeple are people who act like sheep and are led astray by the prevailing “wisdom.” The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah reminds us that we are all sheeple whom Jesus came to seek and save. Isaiah says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”(Isaiah 53:6 NIV) Jesus followers are always looking to find and include sheeple who have been drawn away from Him by their own rebellious nature and desperate desire to belong, be loved, and be accepted. Sometimes I am all too eager to condemn people rather than include them, because I have forgotten that Jesus pursued and included me. Is there someone in your life who needs to be included with God’s people? Maybe there is a creative way for you to make a place for them to be found by Jesus.
Hang in there People! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
