Jacob and His Sheep

I was listening to a sermon today and thinking about the Pastor that was preaching. What an amazing life, to read the Bible since his young years, after high school straight to the work of Christ and never looking back. College, missionary work, etc. I only ever longed for these things but never went that route even though I tried relentlessly hitting brick wall after brick wall. I offered myself up to the wrong god at such a young age and was oftentimes confused with others. If only..

As I thought upon these things during the sermon and as I was comparing and contrasting the different lives between the pastor and I it came to mind that I was often the one sheep who wandered off. I thought, no matter how many times I wandered off in the life Jesus was always there to bring me back home. I often thought about this but didn’t realize until perhaps today, what it was all about. Why would you keep leaving the 99 behind for the one “black sheep.”

Then the story of Jacob flooded my mind. I will be paraphrasing from memory here but it talked about Jacob taking the speckled sheep, the ones with spots and stripes. Oftentimes the sheep who leaves the other 99 is speckled and striped. The speckles in this case are the sins and the stripes in this case are the discipline. Blemishes all over creating the “black sheep”. That is me, the black sheep, the wanderer. Over the years I have realized, if I am not to be accepted, it isn’t about that, it is about my personal relationship with Jesus and it is about strengthening myself and taking care of myself. Jacob took the ones whose appearance was weak and with fault but they were stronger then the sheep without blemish.

In ways, if nurtured correctly, and remaining faithful to Jesus, He can and will raise us up to be stronger than some of those without blemish because there are so many more sheep out there with blemishes that need saving. New bridges are created to Christ through these blemished people that those without blemish could not reach as effectively as those that have been there and done that. Remain faithful, my blemished friends, for Jesus died for us too. That these blemishes will be removed on the day of judgement and that we will remain with the flock for eternity.