A CHRISTIAN worker visiting in a hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, was told by one of the nurses that a man lay dying in a room down the hall.
She went immediately to his bedside, only to find he had drawn the sheet up over his face. Was she too late? Should she speak to him? Satan whispered. “It is very late. The visiting hours are nearly over. Come back tomorrow.”
With a little prayer she overcame the evil one’s suggestion, and kneeling by the dying man’s pillow, recited the southern paraphrase of the old gospel hymn, “The Ninety and Nine.”
“Poor little black sheep
that strayed away,
Got lost in the wind
and the rain;
And the Shepherd say,
‘Oh, hireling, go
Find My little black
sheep again!’
“But the hireling say,
‘Oh, Shepherd,
That sheep am black and bad!
But the Shepherd He smiled
like that little black sheep
Was the onliest sheep he had.
“And the Shepherd say,
‘Hireling, hasten!
For the night is dark and cold.
And that little black sheep
he’s lonesome
Out there so far from the fold.’
“But the hireling say,
‘Oh, Shepherd,
That sheep am old and gray!’
But the Shepherd He smiled like
that little black sheep
Was fair as the break of day.
“And the Shepherd went out
in the darkness,
Where the wind was cold
and bleak,
And that little black sheep,
He find it,
And laid it against his cheek.
“And the hireling say,
‘Oh Shepherd,
Don’t bring that sheep near me!’
But the Shepherd He smiled,
and He held it close...
And that little black sheep
was me!”
With the last line, the dying man slowly pushed the sheet from his eyes and looking into the lady’s face exclaimed,
“And that little black sheep
was me!”
Do you know what it means to be lost in sin — and found again by the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep?
ML-04/07/1974