Carol's favorite Parable, The Lost Sheep

When Carol was little her favorite story in a little Bible story book was the one of Jesus leaving the 99 other sheep that were under his watch to go and find the one, lost sheep.

This story is found in the book of Matthew as well as Luke in the Bible.  The writers of these two books in the Bible must have thought there was some significance to the parable if they both wrote about it.  A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke

A Christmas ornament I have

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:1-7 New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® 

Now I don't know why Carol loved this story so much but I think she possibly did because it had animals in it; it describes in a way that she could relate  of Jesus' love for those who He calls his own....even those who may not always follow His call; and it has a happy ending.  There are lots of subtleties that you can pull from this story, but as in some other areas of Carol's life and death, there are uncanny connections.  One connection is that she is buried in a section of a cemetery called "the Good Shepard Garden." 

When Carol died at the age of 19 from a tragic accident, her final resting place  in the Washington County Memory is in a section of the cemetery

called  the Good Shepard" and there is a statue  of Jesus carrying a small sheep on his shoulders.  Her burial plot was chosen because it was near to my mother's plot.  Only later did we find out name of this section of the cemetery. We did not pick the spot where she was to be laid to rest ..it just so happened that a plot was available  a couple of spots behind the statue of Jesus with the one lamb on his shoulders.

Jesus finds the lost one.

Carol may have gotten an 'inside tip" on what the real good part of this parable is, or she just knew that God would do that for her.  It is said that sheep are not the brightest animals on the farm, and Carol was the object of some 'dumb-blonde' jokes.  But I am not encouraging any associations there.  And just maybe she could relate to being grateful to one who comes looking for her when she was 'lost'.  I remember one night she was driving back home from Cooper's house near Kingsport and had missed the exit she should have taken.  She called me in a panic wanting for me to come get her because of this one error (to her credit, she had not been driving long at this time.)  So I told her I would talk her through getting back on the Interstate in the right direction, and I assured her that this happens to everyone at one time or another, so she could learn from it [and she could thank me latter.]

Here is the other neat thing that happened in regard to this parable and thought:  when I went to church Sunday, one of the praise songs was "Reckless Love (by Cory Asbury)  and it has these lyrics in one part:  

Oh, The overwhelming, never-ending , reckless love of God, 
it chases me down, fights til i'm found, leave the ninety-nine. 
 I couldn't earn it , I don't deserve it, still You give Yourself away.

What a hope I have!!!!!! that because Carol accepted God's love and sacrifice for her, she has a place in heaven, and since I also trust in God's promise for me, I will, one day, see her again! And we will spend all eternity together.  

Judy Hensley 
Dec 17,2017