INTRODUCTION
It's the weekend. You're off to the swimming pool with a group of your friends. It's the best swimming pool in the area and you've never been there before, though you've been wanting to go for some time. You'll even have to go on a new bus route to get there. You're really looking forward to it.
After swishing down the flumes and leaping into the deep end, you're happy but exhausted. Time to have a fizzy drink and a few minutes relaxation before you catch the bus home. Everyone is collapsed round the table, too exhausted to chatter. You decide to get just one more drink, even though the queue is a bit long.
But when you come back you can't believe your eyes. All your friends have gone! There's no-one at the table at all. Where can they have gone? Have you made a mistake? A sick feeling settles in your stomach and you can hardly think for fear. How will you get home? What number was the bus? You run out of the café area in a panic.
You've been standing by the swimming pool entrance for quite a few minutes searching for a familiar face among the crowds, wondering what to do when suddenly you see someone running through the car park. As he gets nearer you realise that it's Jack. Phew! Thank goodness there's someone you know... 'Glad you're here', says Jack, 'When we got to the bus stop we realised you were missing so the others got on the bus and I came back for you. Come on, let's go home.'
Jack was showing that he really cared. In the Bible there is a story that Jesus told about how God cares for people. It's called the parable of the lost sheep.
KEY VIDEO CLIP
Episode 7a: Roar in the Night
PRAYER
Let's think for a moment about times when we have been lost, times when we don't know what will happen next, times when we just don't know what to do.
Lord, you know us all. You know when we are lost and when we need you. Even when we don't know what to do, help us to know that, like the shepherd in the story; you are watching over us and will keep us safe.
Amen
MUSIC
'Lost and Found' No.57 in The Complete Come and Praise
BBC, 1990 ISBN 0 563 34581 0
NOTES
In Epsiode 7 of Storykeepers; the children are worried about the whereabouts of their own parents, so Ben and Helena try to comfort and reassure them with Jesus' Parable of the Lost Sheep.
The image of the shepherd is one commonly used in the Christian tradition, where Jesus is described as a shepherd who cares for everyone.
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