Lost and Found

        (Luke 15:4-7)

It was just an ordinary lamb, wooly and white.
It ate all day and slept all night.
Now one thing about lambs, none are too bright.
It was eating one day, which is what it liked doing the best
It went from turf to turf of grass just like all the rest.

The baby sheep stayed pretty close to their mothers,
but the older lambs enjoyed playing with the others.
They jumped and they ran bleating and baaing all day.
What fun they had, so happy at play.
Now just how it happened I really can’t say,
but this one little lamb drifted farther and farther away.

Maybe it was running, or jumping, or eating,
but suddenly it realized how quiet it was. It didn’t
hear the others bleating.
It cried and cried, and waited to hear another sheep reply.
But all it heard was the shriek of a buzzard high in the sky.

As it wandered around trying to find its way,
it was getting quite dark, soon it would be the end of the day.
Yes, night time was coming and that was dangerous, he knew.
He was really frightened and lonely too.

Far far away over dangerous hills and slippery rock,
the shepherd was safely gathering the rest of the flock.
He was counting each one as they entered the pen.
He counted them all, then he counted again.
One lamb was missing. One wasn’t there!
It was out all alone, without the shepherd’s care.
Without him the lamb didn’t have a chance, he knew.
So the shepherd did what he knew he must do.
It was dark, it was cold, it was time to be asleep.
But the shepherd went out to look for his sheep.

He had searched all night. He was tire and sore,
but he thought of his lamb...he would look a bit more.
Then he heard a low sound. It was hardly a peep,
but maybe, just maybe, it might be his sheep.
So the shepherd looked down over the big rock,
there it was, the lost lamb from his flock.
The lamb was so happy, the shepherd was too.
He picked it up and hugged it, and both of them knew,
that the lamb was safe, because the shepherd was true.
He was true to his sheep as a shepherd should be,
and that's the way God is with you and with me.

Elaine J. Roark
1995