chasing livestock

Not a farm kid, but I helped chase cows once, when snow drifted over the fence. There's not many things that will make you hate cows more than that.

I thought about that when I read Ezekiel 34:11-12 "'For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness."

When God's wayward sheep, me among them, get out of the fences and away from the dogs and scatter to the four winds, God doesn't just let them go. He doesn't leave me to the face the death that chasing my sinful freedom will bring.

Instead, as aggravating as it is to herd scattered sheep, He goes looking, and doesn't rest until he finds them.

That's the image in this Advent reading, that even while we're lost in the wilderness, help is on the way. God is coming to save us. Sheep-stupid though I am, he won't leave me to my own stupidity. There's a safe place, with Him, and He intends to get me there.

That's hope for a hopeless sinner. That's grace where none is deserved. What a Savior!