I didn\u2019t quite get the song: \u201cReckless Love\u201d when I first heard it. I thought it was disrespectful to call God\u2019s love or Christ\u2019s love \u201creckless\u201d. But then, after hearing it over and over, I came to appreciate it because I realized the magnitude of a shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to go after the \u201cone\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That song was based on this scripture: \u201cWhat 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.\u201d (Matthew 18:12-13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been a good girl all my life. Good, meaning that I loved God, loved others, stuck to the general rules of school, business, life AND the 10 Commandments. So, I figure that if we were counting, I would probably land in the mix of the \u201c99\u201d. I never wandered off far from the pack. I was comfortable in the 99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there\u2019s something about the ONE. The \u201cone\u201d that was daring and bold enough to check out what was going on in the other fields. The \u201cone\u201d who kept getting into trouble was the \u201cone\u201d who got the most attention. And, when he would return to the pack, he was the \u201cone\u201d who got the party and praise for coming home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sort of sounds like the story of \u201cThe Prodigal Son\u201d, doesn\u2019t it? He was the \u201cone\u201d! The \u201cone\u201d who had to try out those things on the \u201cother side of the track\u201d. He was the \u201cone\u201d who wasn\u2019t satisfied with mediocrity. He wanted to see the world and all that it afforded. But he was disappointed with his adventures at the end of the day\u2026\u2026.and the \u201cone\u201d went home to the protection and love of his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is: though we are the \u201cone\u201d or in the \u201c99\u201d stick-together group.\u2026Jesus still loves us individually and counts by ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My heart leaps as I consider Jesus\u2019 ministry. Though throngs came to Him for healing or teaching, He often interacted with one-on-ones. He reassured a leper with kind words and physical touch, with a Samaritan woman He had a redemptive conversation, and searched a crowd for one intimidated woman who touched the hem of His garment. Thousands looked for Him, but He invested in twelve men \u2013 one at a time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps today, YOU are the \u201cONE\u201d. Maybe you\u2019re a wanderer \u2013 outside the pack. Or maybe your days are spent in the quiet places, seemingly unnoticed and \u201cun-important\u201d \u2014 at home caring for family, in the pre-school with littles, or in the kitchen making meals for new moms or a sick friend, or visiting the elderly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe you are faithfully doing a job with little recognition or encouraging a friend behind-the-scene? If the work you do is mostly unseen, whether you are comfortable in the \u201c99\u201d mix or you are the \u201cone\u201d, let me remind you that you are THE ONE that Jesus loves and when you call out to Him, He will come running for you and to you! You are just that important to Him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus counts by ones!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I didn\u2019t quite get the song: \u201cReckless Love\u201d when I first heard it. I thought it was disrespectful to call God\u2019s love or Christ\u2019s love \u201creckless\u201d. But then, after hearing it over and over, I came to appreciate it because I realized the magnitude of a shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to go after the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24398,24396,24397],"tags":[1329,24388,1210,1769,24392,24391,40,749,24395,24390,1784,1932,24389,24393,24394],"class_list":["post-16559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jesus-counts-by-ones","category-jesus-love-2","category-prodigal-son","tag-10-commandments","tag-99-sheep","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-daring-and-bold","tag-good-girl","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus","tag-jesus-counts-by-ones","tag-matthew-1812-13","tag-reckless-love","tag-shepherd","tag-the-one","tag-the-prodigal-son","tag-wanderer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16564,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16559\/revisions\/16564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}