To the common eye there is no individuality in a flock of sheep. The shepherd knows them perhaps by their defects. "You see, that sheep toes in a little," says the shepherd. "That other one has a squint; one has a little piece of wool off; another has a black spot; another has a piece out of its ear."
The Chief Shepherd knows the individual failings of His flock. His watch over them is with a separate, discriminating love. Our Savior, with infinite tenderness, watches each doubt, fear, trial, conflict, victory, defeat-every movement of progress or regression. He watches each and all with a solicitude as special and peculiar as if each were the exclusive object of the Savior's love (John 10: 3,4).