Sheep are interesting animals to be compared to. I love how God relates us to sheep in the Bible because it is seriously such an apt description. Some sheep have problems going where the shepherd wants them to go. They will go their own way, try to do their own thing, time and time again. The shepherd will first steer the sheep in the right direction, leaving the 99 to find the one. He will use his crook, he will use his dog to lead them toward safety. Eventually, if the sheep continues to be wayward, he will have to take extreme measures. He will actually break one of the legs of the sheep. But he doesn't just leave it. He carries it around with him for sixty days, the time it takes the sheep to heal. He carries it on his chest, next to his heart, eating, walking, shepherding, sleeping, with it on his chest. The sheep comes to know his master, feels his heart beat, feels the vibration of his voice, hears his breath, and when he is healed and put down, he never leaves his side. He doesn't want to go anywhere else; after having spent every moment for sixty days with him, no where else seems like home. This is a true story; shepherds actually do this. It spoke so much of the love of the Father to me, of His care and compassion. How what may seem like trying times in my life, a series of very hard circumstances, perhaps is the broken leg I need so I don't keep going off on my own.
"After this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69
