30 Days of Hope for Adoptive Parents by Jennifer Phillips

Author:Jennifer Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Hope Publishers
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

WORTH IT

If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

—Matthew 18:12

You and I make choices every day based on the value of things. We assess the worth of opportunities clamoring for our time, of products that claim to be worth our money, of the endless to-dos that demand a piece of our energy. We subconsciously have conversations with ourselves all the time that sound something like this:

“Such-and-such product is on sale at X store, but it’s a 20 minute drive away. Nah, I don’t think it’s worth it.”

“If I wake up early to go the gym, I’ll only get five hours of sleep, and I’ll be cranky all day. It would be better for me to get some extra rest.”

“My favorite artist is performing the concert of a lifetime in my hometown. I don’t care what tickets cost—I’m going. It will absolutely be worth every penny.”

In our economy of time, energy, and resources, there is careful examination of pros and cons, of what return we’ll get on our investment. If a choice doesn’t work to our advantage or benefit us somehow, our natural inclination is to decline. We may not admit this cost analysis approach out loud, but if we’re honest with ourselves, this is how we often operate.

God’s economy is way different.

Jesus made some seemingly crazy choices of how He spent His time and energy. He invested the greatest portion of His resources into 12 ordinary, thickheaded men who had a tendency to bolt at the slightest hint of trouble (John 18:15–18). He dined with the underlings—the folks with whom no one wished to associate—instead of positioning Himself with people of greater power and influence (Matthew 9:10–12). He criticized the leaders we would think He’d have wanted on His side should things get dicey, and He praised those who held the lowest social positions (Matthew 23:1–36). He invited scandal into His life by associating with women and by making what would seem to be blasphemous claims like, “I’m God” (John 4:7–26; 8:58). He challenged those who wanted a high position in His kingdom by telling them to become like children if they really desired greatness (Matthew 18:3–4).

Jesus also told some confusing stories, at least to our understanding. He talked about seeds that sometimes grew and sometimes didn’t (Matthew 13:1–10). He compared a rich man to a camel (Matthew 19:24).

He spoke of a shepherd who left his safe, healthy flock of 99 to search for one measly, directionally-challenged sheep (Matthew 18:12–13).

Who would do that? Who would put a sure thing at risk to save something so small and seemingly insignificant? Who would, according to Jesus, gain more happiness over the rescue of that one lost sheep than the fact that the 99 stayed?

The Great Shepherd, that’s who. The One who gave up everything to rescue you and me.

God had an amazing, redemptive plan. He made the decision

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