5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'
No doubt, God takes great pleasure in the repenting and returning of the wandering. Remember, He desires for none to perish but all to come to repentance yet sadly He knows that many will reject Him:
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV)
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. 1 Tim 2:3-6 (NIV)
Jesus’ rejoicing over the lost sheep now found certainly displays for us a wonderful heavenly minded perspective which, I might add, would do us all well to have! Repentance, the rebel returning and coming home, always brings a smile to God’s face and starts the angels singing! Great rejoicing abounds in the heavens when the children of God finally “get it”! We are so earthbound in our thought processes. We rarely think eternal. We see so dimly. Scripture tells us:
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Cor 13:12 (NIV)
One day our present partial reflection will give way to the splendor of perfect vision. If we only knew in completeness what we are saved for and from, like Jesus, we too would be rejoicing over the retuning of the repentant. As Scripture states:
9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" -- 1 Cor 2:9 (NIV)
“The supreme happiness of life,” Victor Hugo said, “is the conviction that we are loved”...Unfortunately, many people go through life feeling unloved – and unlovable...No matter the reason, your feelings aren’t telling you the truth! God loves you, and if you begin to see yourself the way God sees you, your attitudes will begin to change. If He didn’t love you, would Christ have been willing to die for you? But He did! The Bible says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). God loves you. Hammer that truth into your head and mind every day. It will make all the difference.” Billy Graham
It broke Jesus’ heart when Jerusalem would not turn to Him. In His final lament over the city He states:
37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. Matt 23:37-38 (NIV)
This is not the first time in Scripture where God grieves over those who will not turn to Him:
15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)
Foolish us, when we reject God’s message, we attach ourselves to oppression and deceit. Earlier in this same chapter of Isaiah we find:
12 Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, 13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14 It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern." Isaiah 30:12-14 (NIV)
Let us consider today the great love of God and reflect upon this fact all day long.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 3:16-18 (NIV)
“Jesus loves me this I know; for the Bible tells me so.”