"You Stole My Sheep"

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 4
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When Mt. Soufriere, on the island of St. Vincent, erupted in 1902, there were warnings given, but few people believed them. Some fled the district in time, but many went on in their accustomed place and routine—and their unbelief cost them their lives when the eruption finally came.
Years later a man started the rumor that Mt. Soufriere was going to erupt again. This time, people believed him and they ran to their houses and made preparation to flee.
One woman had a little house and a sheep. The houses stand on pillars, and she tied her sheep underneath the house to one of the posts before she fled.
One day went by, two days, three days, and nothing happened. At last someone climbed the mountain to see for himself. He looked down into the crater and saw that the volcano was dead. How strange and how solemn that people failed to believe the truth, and yet believed a lie! But how like many people who refuse to believe the Lord Jesus and accept Him as their Savior now in this day of grace. They prefer to believe Satan, who is "a liar, and the father of lies."
The woman who had fled made her way back to her house, and when she looked under her house the sheep was gone. Someone had stolen her sheep!
A few days later as she was walking down the village street she saw a man coming toward her with a sheep. She recognized her sheep. She went up to him and said, "You have my sheep!"
"No, it's my sheep!"
"You're wrong; it's mine," she insisted.
"Well, you can't have it, because it's mine!"
She took the case to the authorities, and the day came when the judge summoned them to appear before him in the courtroom in Georgetown. There the charge was read against this man, that he had stolen the woman's sheep.
He maintained, "I didn't steal the sheep. The sheep is mine!"
The judge turned to the man and said, "If the sheep is yours you must go outdoors and call your sheep."
He went outside and called the sheep, but it didn't respond to his voice. Why? Because the sheep didn't know his voice. Finally the judge had the man called back to the courtroom.
Then to the woman he said, "Now you must go out and call the sheep."
She went outdoors and called her sheep, and right away the sheep went "Ma-a-ah! Ma-a-ah!" and ran straight to her.
It went right to the woman, because that sheep belonged to her. It knew the voice of the woman, and the woman knew her sheep. The Lord Jesus knows if you are one of His sheep. He said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." John 10:27, 28.
Have you answered His call? If you haven't, say "yes" to Him now and receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53:6.