Bring 'Em Back Alive

It was a story Jesus liked to tell. If a man owned a hundred sheep and one of them wandered away, he would, without hesitation, leave the ninety-nine and search for the one. And when he found that lost sheep he would celebrate with great joy. In the same way, Jesus concluded, our Father in heaven–like the shepherd–is unwilling for any of his sheep to be lost. Yet all too often God’s sheep do wander from the flock. Sometimes, for reasons that are hard to discern, they stray on their own. Other ti