Among the passengers in a street car, in which I was riding not long ago, were some little children with their father and mother. At a certain place the car stopped, and the mother got out, taking two of the children with her. The father was the last to leave, carrying in his arms a dear little boy of about five years of age, when suddenly the little fellow cried out in a frightened manner, “Wait for me.”
You can guess how everybody smiled at the little one’s fear of being left behind, while his father’s strong arms bore him safely out to the others. And yet how much this is like many who love the Lord Jesus!
I expect you remember that beautiful parable of the lost sheep—indeed, I hope you often read your Bible—where the Lord Jesus Himself tells that woerful story of the sheep that strayed away; how the shepherd went after it, and did not cease to seek until he found it. When he had found it, he laid it on his shoulders rejoicing; and never did he once let go his precious treasure.
What would you think now, if the sheep had said out to the shepherd,
“Wait for me?” Why, you would say, “Where the shepherd went, the sheep went, too; because it was on his shoulders.”
And so I would just say to you, dear boys and girls, who have put your trust in the Lord Jesus, that you are in quite as safe a place as that poor sheep that was found, and that the Shepherd who has found you will never leave you, nor forsake you, and you will never need to cry to Him, “Wait for me,” for until He brings you to that bright home in the skies, He will make you His constant care all life’s journey through.
Yes, Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and in order that He might find us, and have us with Him forever, He had to give up His own life, to suffer on the cross for our sins, and shed His precious blood to make us clean and pure, whiter even than the snow, that we might be made fit to dwell with Him in that place where nothing enters in that defiles.
May you still trust His tender care,
Until He brings you safely there.
ML 04/08/1945