LOST… AND I KNEW IT!

Have you ever lost a child at the shops, or even got lost yourself somewhere? It’s a horrible feeling!

At the age of 5, I was lucky enough to go with my family on a holiday to Tasmania. It was around Christmas time and the Carols by Candlelight event was on in Hobart, so we decided to go. It was probably the only event in the whole of Tasmania that was on that night because it seemed that every family on the whole island were at this event. There were thousands of people everywhere!

I was enjoying playing with the wax of the candle as it melted from the warmth of the flame. Yes, it was back in the age that we were actually given real candles to hold and wave around during the carols. The runny wax must have been very distracting because when I looked up, my parents had disappeared! In any direction I turned, there were swarms of people, but none that I recognised! That feeling of being lost with nothing you can do about it, is very scary.

I don’t know if sheep feel this way too, but there was a sheep in the Bible that wandered away from the shepherd and got itself lost. The sheep knew it was lost, but there was nothing that it could do about it. When the shepherd realised he was missing one of his sheep, he left all the other sheep with someone and went in search of the one lost sheep. He found the sheep and then joyfully put the sheep on his shoulders and carried it home. Joyfully, not complaining about the burden. He was happy to be bringing the sheep home.

This story is part of three stories in the book of Luke that demonstrate the love Jesus has for each of us. He searches for us when we choose to wander away. He finds us when we are at our lowest and picks us up. Jesus carries us back to where we belong, in His family.

“We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God as piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on Him.” - Isaiah 53:6 (MSG)

In case you are wondering, my parents did find me at the Carols by Candlelight and bought me back safely to the family!

It is great be to back with all the students again today. I hope you all stay safe and well over the coming weeks.

Chaplain Phil

* CONNECT EVENT – We were scheduled to have another ‘Connect4’ event next week, however with the current COVID restrictions, we won’t be able to go ahead with what was planned. We look forward to hopefully all getting together again later in the term.