Go Look For The Little One Who Wandered Off

"Fathers, do not embitter your children,

or they will become discouraged."

Colossians 3:21 (NIV)

A father's role in raising his children is vital. Yet so many parents today divorce or separate. As a result, it is common to hear of fathers abandoning and mothers neglecting their children. When these things happen, the parents often make victims not only of themselves, but also of their children. These children are innocently caught in the middle, left to suffer alone a pain that is not easily relieved.

As God's people, we need to reach out to these children and tell them that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them very much! In Scripture, our Father in heaven is likened to a shepherd who leaves his large flock of a hundred sheep on a hill just to look for one that wandered off. And when He finds that one sheep, He greatly rejoices, because it is not the will of God that any little one should perish.

"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 18:12-14 (NIV)

God needs His people to search for these little lambs who are all alone, stranded in the thickets, desperate for someone to give them the lasting love and attention they crave, and to tell them that there is a faithful Father in heaven who will always love them, and who yearns insatiably to bring them into His Kingdom.