Taught by... TBA
Just
as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up
your heart to the Savior of the world, He will find you.
One of my
haunting childhood memories begins with the howl of distant air-raid
sirens that awaken me from sleep. Before long, another sound, the rattle
and hum of propellers, gradually increases until it shakes the very
air. Trained well by our mother, we children each grab our bag and run
up the hill to a bomb shelter. As we hurry through the pitch-dark night,
green and white flares drop from the sky to mark the targets for the
bombers. Strangely enough, everyone calls these flares Christmas trees.
I am four years old, and I am a witness to a world at war.
Dresden
Not far from where my family lived
was the city of Dresden. Those who lived there witnessed perhaps a
thousand times what I had seen. Massive firestorms, caused by thousands
of tons of explosives, swept through Dresden, destroying more than 90
percent of the city and leaving little but rubble and ash in their wake.
In a very short time, the city once
nicknamed the “Jewel Box” was no more. Erich Kästner, a German author,
wrote of the destruction, “In a thousand years was her beauty built, in
one night was it utterly destroyed.”1
During my childhood I could not imagine how the destruction of a war
our own people had started could ever be overcome. The world around us
appeared totally hopeless and without any future.
Last year I had the opportunity to
return to Dresden. Seventy years after the war, it is, once again, a
“Jewel Box” of a city. The ruins have been cleared, and the city is
restored and even improved.
During my visit I saw the beautiful
Lutheran church Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady. Originally built
in the 1700s, it had been one of Dresden’s shining jewels, but the war
reduced it to a pile of rubble. For many years it remained that way,
until finally it was determined that the Frauenkirche would be rebuilt.
Stones from the destroyed church had
been stored and cataloged and, when possible, were used in the
reconstruction. Today you can see these fire-blackened stones
pockmarking the outer walls. These “scars” are not only a reminder of
the war history of this building but also a monument to hope—a
magnificent symbol of man’s ability to create new life from ashes.
As I pondered the history of
Dresden and marveled at the ingenuity and resolve of those who restored
what had been so completely destroyed, I felt the sweet influence of the
Holy Spirit. Surely, I thought, if man can take the ruins, rubble, and
remains of a broken city and rebuild an awe-inspiring structure that
rises toward the heavens, how much more capable is our Almighty Father
to restore His children who have fallen, struggled, or become lost?
It matters not how completely
ruined our lives may seem. It matters not how scarlet our sins, how deep
our bitterness, how lonely, abandoned, or broken our hearts may be.
Even those who are without hope, who live in despair, who have betrayed
trust, surrendered their integrity, or turned away from God can be
rebuilt. Save those rare sons of perdition, there is no life so
shattered that it cannot be restored.
The joyous news of the gospel is
this: because of the eternal plan of happiness provided by our loving
Heavenly Father and through the infinite sacrifice of Jesus the Christ,
we can not only be redeemed from our fallen state and restored to
purity, but we can also transcend mortal imagination and become heirs of
eternal life and partakers of God’s indescribable glory.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
During the Savior’s ministry, the
religious leaders of His day disapproved of Jesus spending time with
people they had labeled “sinners.”
Perhaps to them it looked like He
was tolerating or even condoning sinful behavior. Perhaps they believed
that the best way to help sinners repent was by condemning, ridiculing,
and shaming them.
When the Savior perceived what the Pharisees and scribes were thinking, He told a story:
“What man of you, having an hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in
the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
“And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”2
Over the centuries, this parable
has traditionally been interpreted as a call to action for us to bring
back the lost sheep and to reach out to those who are lost. While this
is certainly appropriate and good, I wonder if there is more to it.
Is it possible that Jesus’s purpose, first and foremost, was to teach about the work of the Good Shepherd?
Is it possible that He was testifying of God’s love for His wayward children?
Is it possible that the Savior’s
message was that God is fully aware of those who are lost—and that He
will find them, that He will reach out to them, and that He will rescue
them?
If that is so, what must the sheep do to qualify for this divine help?
Does the sheep need to know how to
use a complicated sextant to calculate its coordinates? Does it need to
be able to use a GPS to define its position? Does it have to have the
expertise to create an app that will call for help? Does the sheep need
endorsements by a sponsor before the Good Shepherd will come to the
rescue?
No. Certainly not! The sheep is worthy of divine rescue simply because it is loved by the Good Shepherd.
To me, the parable of the lost sheep is one of the most hopeful passages in all of scripture.
Our Savior, the Good Shepherd, knows and loves us. He knows and loves you.
He knows when you are lost, and He knows where you are. He knows your grief. Your silent pleadings. Your fears. Your tears.
It matters not how you became lost—whether because of your own poor choices or because of circumstances beyond your control.
What matters is that you are His child. And He loves you. He loves His children.
Because He loves you, He will find
you. He will place you upon His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He brings
you home, He will say to one and all, “Rejoice with me; for I have
found my sheep which was lost.”3
What Must We Do?
But, you might be thinking, what is the catch? Surely I have to do more than simply wait to be rescued.
While our loving Father desires that all of His children return to Him, He will force no one to heaven.4 God will not rescue us against our will.
So what must we do?
His invitation is simple:
“Turn … to me.”5
“Come unto me.”6
“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you.”7
This is how we show Him that we want to be rescued.
It requires a little faith. But do not despair. If you cannot muster faith right now, begin with hope.
If you cannot say you know God is there, you can hope that He is. You can desire to believe.8 That is enough to start.
Then, acting on that hope, reach
out to Heavenly Father. God will extend His love toward you, and His
work of rescue and transformation will begin.
Over time, you will recognize His
hand in your life. You will feel His love. And the desire to walk in His
light and follow His way will grow with every step of faith you take.
We call these steps of faith “obedience.”
That is not a popular word these
days. But obedience is a cherished concept in the gospel of Jesus Christ
because we know that “through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may
be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”9
As we increase in faith, we also
must increase in faithfulness. Earlier I quoted a German author who
lamented the destruction of Dresden. He also penned the phrase “Es gibt
nichts Gutes, ausser: Man tut es.” For those who do not speak the
celestial language, this is translated as “There is nothing good unless
you do it.”10
You and I may speak most eloquently
of spiritual things. We may impress people with our keen intellectual
interpretation of religious topics. We may rhapsodize about religion and
“dream of [our] mansion above.”11
But if our faith does not change the way we live—if our beliefs do not
influence our daily decisions—our religion is vain, and our faith, if
not dead, is certainly not well and is in danger of eventually
flatlining.12
Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls.
But sometimes I think we
misunderstand obedience. We may see obedience as an end in itself,
rather than a means to an end. Or we may pound the metaphorical hammer
of obedience against the iron anvil of the commandments in an effort to
shape those we love, through constant heating and repeated battering,
into holier, heavenly matter.
No doubt about it, there are times
when we need a stern call to repentance. Certainly, there are some who
may be reached only in this manner.
But perhaps there is a different
metaphor that can explain why we obey the commandments of God. Maybe
obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding
our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which
we discover what we truly are made of.
We are created by the Almighty God.
He is our Heavenly Father. We are literally His spirit children. We are
made of supernal material most precious and highly refined, and thus we
carry within ourselves the substance of divinity.
Here on earth, however, our
thoughts and actions become encumbered with that which is corrupt,
unholy, and impure. The dust and filth of the world stain our souls,
making it difficult to recognize and remember our birthright and
purpose.
But all this cannot change who we
truly are. The fundamental divinity of our nature remains. And the
moment we choose to incline our hearts to our beloved Savior and set
foot upon the path of discipleship, something miraculous happens. The
love of God fills our hearts, the light of truth fills our minds, we
start to lose the desire to sin, and we do not want to walk any longer
in darkness.13
We come to see obedience not as a
punishment but as a liberating path to our divine destiny. And
gradually, the corruption, dust, and limitations of this earth begin to
fall away. Eventually, the priceless, eternal spirit of the heavenly
being within us is revealed, and a radiance of goodness becomes our
nature.
You Are Worthy of Rescue
My dear brothers and sisters, my dear friends, I testify that God sees us as we truly are—and He sees us worthy of rescue.
You may feel that your life is in
ruins. You may have sinned. You may be afraid, angry, grieving, or
tortured by doubt. But just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep,
if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world, He will
find you.
He will rescue you.
He will lift you up and place you on His shoulders.
He will carry you home.
If mortal hands can transform
rubble and ruins into a beautiful house of worship, then we can have
confidence and trust that our loving Heavenly Father can and will
rebuild us. His plan is to build us into something far greater than what
we were—far greater than what we can ever imagine. With each step of
faith on the path of discipleship, we grow into the beings of eternal
glory and infinite joy we were designed to become.
This is my testimony, my blessing, and my humble prayer in the sacred name of our Master, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
