Do you really believe this?

Here Jesus' description of himself as the Good Shepherd will help us. Our natural instinct is to suspect that if he restores us at all it Will be grudgingly; it must be a necessary but irritating inconvenience for him.

But Christ does not come to us officiously; he comes willingly and graciously to restore us. Recall what he said to those who "muttered" that "this man welcomes sinners":

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep' (Luke 15:4-6, italics added).

This is a parable; but the Shepherd's joy is literal. Do you really believe that?

--Sinclair Ferguson