The question was asked in a Sunday school, “When the Good Shepherd found the sheep, how did He bring it home?”
Many of the clear children answered the question correctly, “On His shoulders.”
I have sometimes heard it read, “On His shoulder,” but this is not true. A butcher might unfeelingly sling a poor sheep over one shoulder, but the Shepherd could not do so. How uncomfortable the poor thing would he, with its head hanging over the shepherd’s back! No, the Good Shepherd holds all the legs firmly, two in each hand, and places the sheep gently on His shoulders, its poor weary head resting on His loving bosom. What a place of love and peace, ourselves the object of that love and power!
A dear aged servant of the Lord would often ask the question,
“On Whom does it depend now whether the poor, silly, straying sheep gets safely home?’’
Does it depend on the sheep at all when once he is securely placed on those powerful shoulders? The Shepherd is responsible now, and He is all-powerful and all-loving. No fear of His footsteps slipping, or His strength failing, until His sheep is placed safely in the home which He has prepared for it
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” Jude 24,25.
ML 08/14/1938