September 29,2020

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a beautiful day. The sun has decided to come out here after a fresh rain. This morning I studied, did food prep and made some chocolate covered raspberries and brought downstairs for coffee time. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart

Isn’t it great when the lost is found? It could be something we have treasured and one day we discover it again in a place we had not thought to look before; or it could be a lost child happily   united with parents again. Recently we met a friend on the Paul Bunyan trail who is from our apartment complex. She was sitting on a bench next to another woman and both of them with big smiles and bearer of good news. They were long- time friends, living near one another and doing things together as families when their kids were young. Over the years they moved and went on with life and lost contact. But on this day, both of them were out for a walk and they came upon each other on the trail. They couldn’t believe it and had to sit down to visit and catch up. What they discovered was that they live close to one another now with only one apartment complex in between that is connected by the trail. They are united again! In a spiritual sense, I was reminded of what can happen to any of us. Though we may start out strong, knowing the Lord as a child, we may gradually fall away in the busyness of life. We get so attached to the things of the world that we forget God and do life on our own. But all the while God is not far away, and may use circumstances in our lives to remind us that He is near and wants a relationship with us. When a sheep is lost, the shepherd will go to great lengths to find the lost one, just as the Lord pursues us. When He finds us, He doesn’t chide us for we know we are the one that has strayed. Jesus said in Luke 15: 5-6 (God’s Word), “When he finds it, He’s happy. He puts the sheep on his shoulders and goes home. Then He calls His friends and neighbors together and says to then, ‘Let’s celebrate! I’ve found my lost sheep!” Just as Jesus finds us and puts us back in the fold again, we are restored into fellowship with Him and others in the sheepfold. Our friend who discovered her friend on the trail was so happy but even more so is the joy in heaven when someone comes back to the Lord.

Challenge for today: Reach out and show God’s love to lost sheep.