Black Little Sheep

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
A Christian, visiting in a hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, was told by one of the nurses that a man lay dying in a room down the hall-a man who seemed to have no relatives nor friends.
She went to his bedside, only to find he had drawn the sheet up over his face. Was she too late? Should she try to speak to him?
After a little prayer, she knelt by the dying man’s bed and softly recited the colloquial version of the old gospel hymn,
“The Ninety and Nine.”
Poor little black sheep that strayed away,
Got lost in the wind and the rain;
And the Shepherd say,
“Oh, Hireling, go
Find my little black sheep again!”
And the hireling frowns,
“Oh, Shepherd,
That sheep is black and bad”;
But the Shepherd,
He smiled like that little black sheep
Is the on liest lamb He had.
And the Shepherd say, “Hireling, hasten!
For the night is dark and cold,
And that little black sheep is lonesome
Out there so far from the fold”;
But the hireling frowned, “Oh, Shepherd,
That sheep is old and gray!”
But the Shepherd,
He smiled like that little black sheep
Was fair as the break of day.
And the Shepherd went out in the darkness,
Where the night was cold and bleak,
And that little black sheep, he find it,
And laid it against His cheek;
And the hireling frowned,
“Oh, Shepherd,
Don’t bring that sheep near me!”
But the Shepherd just smiled, and He held it close,
And that little sheep-was me!
With the last line the dying man slowly pushed the sheet from his face and looking into the Christian’s face whispered, “And that little black sheep was me!”
Have you known what it means to be lost in sin and found again by the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep?
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (John 10:1111I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)).