The Good Shepherd & The Dog Pound

Recently, my daughter’s little Peekapoo puppy escaped outside the house to parts unknown. She was missing a total of about two hours when she turned up in our backyard. But, while she was missing and I was trying to coordinate a search for her and keep my daughter from coming unglued, I had an enlightening experience.
I made a trip down to the pound to check for her and register her as missing. When I arrived, I was instructed to go down one hallway where I would find small to medium dogs and then down another and through a door where I would find a long narrow room with pens lining one wall.
A father and son arrived shortly after I did and were apparently given the same instructions. They entered the large pen area just behind me and headed left.
The young dark-haired boy began calling his dog’s name. Now, mind you, there must have been twenty-five to thirty alarmed dogs in this room; all barking wildly. Go ahead, imagine the immense sound in this high-ceilinged, narrow concrete well of a room with MANY LOUD barking dogs.
The wide-eyed boy was all business. He immediately began scanning the two levels of pens and calling his dog by name over and over. He came back past the door and made his way to the pens on the right. Moments later, he was calling to his dad in great excitement and a big smile spread across his face. He had found his lost Labrador. I heard his dad ask how he had found him so quickly and he answered that he kept calling his name and heard him barking. He had just followed the sound of his dog’s bark.
Now all of this set me to thinking. This young man was a reflection of Someone else looking for someone lost. In the first place, his mannerisms had to be just like that of our Good Shepherd. He walked into that big room and he was alert and focused on spotting “his” dog. Our shepherd is the same way. From the instant we go “missing”, He is seeking us out from among the many who are lost. He is not discouraged when He doesn’t immediately see us. He strains to look both left and right and left again.
He calls to us and listens for our unique voices to answer. Just like that Labrador knew his boy’s voice and (while I still don’t know how among all the chaos), that boy knew his dog’s bark. He kept calling and following one bark until he found him.
And, we have to talk about the smile. This was the best part. The smile on that boy’s face was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. He could not stop smiling. Have you ever been so happy, it was spilling out all over your face and you just couldn’t make it stop? I thought we might have to call for medical attention, his rosy cheeks were so bright and uncontrollable. Have you ever thought of Jesus with that face? With all my heart I know Jesus makes that face plus some every time he finds one of us when we have roamed away, trailed out of His word, and jumped over the fences of our eternal salvation and into the chaos, much like that of the dog pound. Think about that face and the love that it cannot fully express.
Have a beautiful day and go visit a dog pound. You might see Someone’s reflection in the face of a young boy.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”
John 10:14