The other night it was really windy and rainy so I went out to my backyard to bring my dog into the garage. That’s when I noticed that the wind had blown the side gate wide open. I immediately panicked when Zoe didn’t come running to me as she always does. In an instant, I put on a jacket, grabbed an umbrella, and ran outside looking for her. My roommates drove around while I patrolled the neighborhood by foot. It didn’t matter that I was freezing and completely drenched with rain; I had to find her.
I thought about her as a puppy and how she has been such a source of comfort. I thought about how I should’ve made sure the gate was locked. I thought about how I should’ve brought her inside sooner. I thought about all the times I didn’t play with her because I was too tired or the times when I neglected to walk her because I had to entertain guests.
I thought about how I had forgotten the one for the many.
Thank goodness she was only hiding at a neighbor’s yard. When I finally found her, I was so relieved and excited that she thought I was playing a game with her so she took off running to the park down the street. After chasing her all the way to the park, I finally came to my dog training senses and knelt down and simply called her name. She quickly ran back to me with her big dog smile, completely oblivious to the turmoil she put me through. I was just glad to have her back.
Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
[Luke 15:4]
There will be times when I’ll still de-prioritize Zoe for the many things I have on my plate. God never loses perspective as I do. He is always about the individual in the midst of the crowd.
He saw the repulsive prostitute and declared that she was beautiful. He saw Zacchaeus, the despised tax collector, and invited him to be his friend. And though a crowd surrounded him, he felt the touch of the untouchable woman and made her whole.
Though I may run after my many pursuits for fulfillment through recognition, religion, riches, and relationships… he will always run after me. It was in his infinite wisdom and grace that he knelt down, like I knelt, and called my name. But when he knelt, he knelt before a court that condemned him for my crimes. And when he called my name, it was not at the inconvenience of being covered in rain, but at the cost of being covered with the searing marks of the whip, the terrible bite of a crown of thorns, and the unimaginable sting of nails piercing his hands and feet.
You see, I know that God sees the one among the multitude because he saved the multitude at the cost of the One.
He sees the one…
The ones on the fringe… the marginalized… the outliers…
The unwanted… the weak… the weary…
The last… the least… and the lost…
He sees all of them… he sees all of us… but mainly… in the crowd, in the masses, in the multitude… he runs and calls out… because…
Well…
he sees you.
