He left the 99 | ivory

Talking Points | Hey, What's Your Shirt Mean? "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray." --Matthew 18:11-13 NKJV In those days, shepherds and sheep were commonplace, so the people would understand this analogy. Why would it make sense for a shepherd to leave 99 sheep (unwatched) to go find the 1 missing? Why not just count it as lost and move forward with ensuring that the 99 are kept safe?   This is an analogy, of course. In reality, God knows the 99 are already safe in His Kingdom. Just as the 99 are God's children, the one is also His child... He cares for the one "lost" sheep ... the one who does not know Him, the one who is not saved. At one point, the 99 were lost, too! He rejoices for every saved soul and pursues us all