Once a shepherd had a flock of 100 sheep. Shepherds love their sheep. Sometimes they even have names for the sheep. A shepherd leads his sheep to nutritious green grass to eat. He looks for nice clean water so his sheep can have a drink when they are thirsty.

A shepherd watches after every sheep and takes care of them. Sometimes dangerous animals like bears and lions would come and try to hurt his sheep. The shepherd protects the sheep and chases all the dangerous animals away from them.

At other times the sheep would wander away from the rest of the sheep and the shepherd had to call out the sheep’s name. When the sheep heard the shepherd’s voice he would run back to the shepherd.

The shepherd loved every one of his sheep. He even had names for his sheep. Every night he would count his sheep to make sure that all 100 were there.

Jesus continued talking about the shepherd in the parable. One day the shepherd counted his sheep and found that there were only 99 sheep instead of 100. The shepherd was so worried.  One of the sheep must be lost.

Even though 99 of the sheep were safe the shepherd was so concerned about the 1 sheep that was lost. Immediately, he left the other sheep in a safe place and set off looking for the lost sheep.

The shepherd searched everywhere. What if the sheep were hurt? What if some wild animals had attacked it?

Finally, he found the lost sheep! The shepherd was so relieved and happy.

The shepherd lifted the sheep up onto his shoulders and carried him all the way back to join the rest of the flock.

Every sheep is important to the shepherd. Even if only one is lost he will search everywhere to find it.

In the same way, people are important to God.  He does not want anyone to be lost either.  Every person is important to God.

Do you believe that people are important to God?  If we know that someone is missing, what do you think we should do?

Scripture Reference: Matthew 18:10-14 and Luke 15:1-7