The Good Shepherd

Perhaps some day we'll know how very much He loves us. Maybe this little poem will help in that realization.

I am the lost, lonely, poor little lamb
Jesus came looking to save;
So far away had I wandered that day,
I am sure I'd be now in my grave

If the Shepherd had not left the others alone
To come and to look for me there.
So frightened was I, I could do naught but cry,
And he heard my sad cry as a prayer.

Oh, why had I wandered so far away?
Why had I gone on my own?
The grass looked so green and the meadow so fair,
But I ended up there so alone.

A delight to the eye were the things I had seen,
They were such an attraction to me;
They called out to me and they beckoned me on
And I blindly went where they did lead.

But the beautiful sights that seemed such a delight
Turned to thorns and to thistles so sharp;
Then the rain and the cold and the fog took a hold
And imprisoned me there in the dark.

My flesh had been torn by the briars and thorns,
I was lonely and hungry and cold;
I wanted no more than be found and returned
To where I had strayed from the fold.

O'er the wind as it howled came a sound to my ears
I'll remember for eternity;
Through the rain that was falling my shepherd was calling
My name, he was searching for me.

"Here am I, here am I," was my faint, feeble cry,
"Over here in the thicket so sharp;
Here I am, here I am, your lost, little lamb -"
He was coming to me in the dark.

Then at last I was found as o'er the rough ground
He came up the mountain so steep.
I looked and I saw with wonder and awe
The wounds in his hands and his feet.

Then I saw in the rain all the blood and the pain,
All the anguish he suffered for me;
For me who was lost he had paid such a cost
For my freedom and my liberty.

I scarcely could stand so he reached out his hands
And lifted me up to him there.
Wrapped in his embrace, I looked on his face,
And saw there not raindrops, but tears.

"I have found you at last, through the storm and the blast,
I have looked for you both low and high.
Come, let's go home, my dear, precious one,
And we'll never more part, you and I."

Then he carried me along on his shoulders so strong
And he sang me a song on the way -
"Thou art mine, I am thine, and in me you'll find
All you'll need for now and always."

Oh, he loves me, I know, but how is it so,
That one so unworthy as I
Could merit like this the joy and the bliss
Of being thus with him so nigh?

Why should he care to look for me there
In the terrible place I had strayed?
To leave all behind and seek me to find?
Why pay the great price that he paid?

Oh, 'tis love I've heard of, that comes from above,
That sent him out looking for me;
'Twas love on a cross that paid all my loss
And set me eternally free.

Now the Shepherd and I dwell together for 'aye,
I'll nevermore, ne'er go astray.
I am His, He is mine, forever entwined,
Together for now and always.