Good Morning Friends,
“See that you do not look down on one of these
little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of
my Father in heaven. What 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, I tell you the truth,
he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not
wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of
these little ones should be lost.” (Matthew 18:10-14)
Jesus looked out over the city of Jerusalem and
cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Luke 13:34)
But when Jesus looked at Jerusalem, He did not
see a crowd of nameless, faceless people. He saw the city as individuals, loved
one by one.
That is the picture that Jesus drew in the
passage from Matthew above. It is a picture of God who looks at the world and
does not see the crowds as a great mass, but as individual people, each of whom
He loves deeply and longs to see in His kingdom.
Peter declared that God does not want “anyone
to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) The key words are
“anyone” and “everyone.” They refer to individuals, whom God knows by name and
loves each one.
When we look at our cities with their masses of
people, many of whom are not saved, remember that they are not just nameless,
faceless people. Instead, they are each known and each loved and each valued
and each sought after by God, just like we are!
His, by Grace, Steve
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