“See that you do not despise 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, truly I tell you, 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 perish.”

Matthew 18:10 – 14

I find it most interesting that, in his final parables, and in his statements, he had not the powerful in mind but the “little ones.”  The politics of the time wrestled with the mighty power of Rome and the limited power of the Province of Palestine.  That did not enter Jesus’ discussion at all!  He spoke not of how God loves the powerful but the little ones who have no power at all.  Further, he insists that we should be satisfied to be powerless.

To illustrate his point, he again referred to one sheep of the hundred who wandered from the flock and found itself in an absolutely desperate situation.  That, according to Jesus is the state of “the little ones.”  They cannot rescue themselves.  To survive they must be rescued!

Jesus goes a bit further – when the helpless sheep, the little one, was found and returned to the flock, it was indeed a happy scene.  I must admit, I would have used the occasion to remind all in the flock not to wander off.  The Good Shepherd did nothing of the sort.  The sheep already knew that.  The new and startling thing was that the shepherd welcomed the “little one” back into the flock with shouts of joy from all.

Then, this most wonderful of truths –  our Father does not want any of us, his sheep, to perish!  What a Shepherd!