In the cool of an overcast morning, Mother and Sherri hurried to pick all the raspberries before the sun turned hot. Sherri seemed to be less eager than Mother about picking, although she loved the sweet, juicy raspberries. “Mom,” Sherri said laughing, “there you go again! I really think you would stand on your head to catch one silly raspberry before it fell. See, your scarf is caught on the bush, and now you’ve scratched your arm! Why do you worry about one raspberry dropping when there are so many? I don’t think we’ll ever finish picking them. What is one raspberry more or less when there are so many?”
Loosening her scarf and glancing at the scratch on her arm, her mother smiled a little sheepishly. “You know, I’ve wondered that myself sometimes, but it seems a shame for a beautiful, juicy berry to lie in the dirt and rot. I just can’t let them fall.”
“It sure doesn’t bother me,” Sherri said.
Mother’s thoughts took a serious turn, and after a few minutes she asked, “Sherri, what if the Lord had felt that way about you and me? I’m glad it wasn’t too much trouble for Him to concern Himself about silly Sherri and stubborn Mother, both of whom showed no desire to do anything but go on in their own sinful ways. He didn’t say, ‘Why bother with them when there are so many other people who might be less trouble to Me?’ Like the wonderful Shepherd He is, our Saviour searched for and found the lost sheep!”
Sherri could see her mother’s point. She repeated the Bible verse, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd [gives] His life for the sheep” (John 10:1111I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)). Then she said, “I’m sure glad He found us, and He won’t ever throw us out. You throw out any raspberries that are dried up or have bad spots on them, but Jesus doesn’t. He really cared about the people who were poor, blind or sick.”
ML-05/24/2015