“In times like these you need a Savior
In times like these you need an anchor
Be very sure, be very sure…” In Times Like These

Saul was blind for three days after being confronted by Jesus over why he chose to be such a criminal, intent on being so vicious.

He was found and he saw life differently.

One lamb wanders away, the others stay in the pasture waiting as the shepherd, the master of their wellness and safety leaves them to find the wayward one. The parable is for us, the ones who were lost and still get lost sometimes.

We need our good shepherd. We’re prone to forget.

“Think of it this way: If a man owns a hundred sheep and one lamb wanders away and is lost, won’t he leave the ninety-nine grazing the hillside and thoroughly search for the one lost lamb? Now you should understand that it is never the desire of your heavenly Father that a single one of these little ones should be lost.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18:12, 14‬ ‭TPT‬‬

I saw a man walking on Wednesday.

His dark hair combed back from his face, his jaw clean shaven. The sun came up over his shoulder, I hoped it was the one I’d been praying for, the man I’d seen the days before.

This man curled up under the overpass, then later on my route, walking cloaked in black jacket and too big pants, bent down towards the sidewalk along the highway, once I saw him leave the Waffle House, I prayed he’d been well fed.

Seeing him early in the day made me hopeful. I prayed God had made for him a new path.

I’ve been sketching lots of practice sketches for a commission, a bird cradled in a hand was the request. Instead, I keep sketching hands cupping a bird in a nest.

Think of this.

We know God cares for us by looking at the birds as evidence of that love.

Look at the nest built by a mama bird and you’ll see it’s even more elaborate than we can fathom. A bird nest, intricately woven together, little stems and pieces of whatever that the bird creates using a sort of circle pattern as if the cupped hand of God is keeping it safe until it can fly on its own.

I’m humbled and awed by this.

If God, the maker of heaven and earth has equipped a bird to do this, how could I ever question His love and intentional preparing of me, to do things for those around me and for Him?

“Consider the birds—do you think they worry about their existence? They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your heavenly Father provides them each with food. Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they? So, which one of you by worrying could add anything to your life?”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:26-27‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Be very sure. He cares for you.

Like a mama bird with babies, like a kind and gentle shepherd who’d never abandon his lost lamb.

Like a Father who is wise, a friend who is kind. Like a stranger who stops what they’re doing to offer aid.

Be very sure, God cares for you and for lost, lonely or weary people you’ll never know.

Continue and believe.