Prone to Wander

If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? Matthew 18:12

Have you ever got separated from a group or crowd, or have you ever said, ‘Don’t wait for me, I’ll catch you up’? Something needs doing now and we don’t want to leave it to later, or something has caught our attention and our focus is completely shifted. After a while we suddenly realise that the group we were with are no longer in sight.

When we get distracted with worldly goings-on and take our eyes of Jesus, we leave ourselves open to wandering along the wrong path, or at the very least an unproductive path. Practically everyone agrees that social media is a minefield of distraction and can suck hours from your life every day, but wandering comes in various guises and it will differ for each of us. We will all know, though, when our attention has been divided and our once clear view of Jesus has now become obstructed.

My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. Psalm 73:2

We are all prone to wander from time to time, but thankfully our Shepherd never takes his eyes off us and he has an unobstructed view. He sees us clearly and knows exactly where we are when we stray, whether that’s a little or a lot. Wherever we find ourselves, when we lift our eyes we will see Jesus, for he never loses sight of us.

We will all wander but we will never wander out of the love and care of the Shepherd.