Revelation 7:17b NIV “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:4 NIV “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Once upon a time there was a little lamb. It enjoyed frisking about, playing with its other lamb friends, and snuggling up at night with its mother. His mother loved him dearly, and she always took good care of him.
But then the little lamb fell and hurt himself. His mother tried to help him, but she could not. So she went to get the shepherd. The shepherd knew about the little lamb, and descended the hill to their pasture to take a look. He knew way more than the mother sheep. He tried to help the little lamb, but the little lamb would not walk again. It was lame.
The mother lamb begged the shepherd to help the little lamb, by saying to him, “Baa, baa, baa, bleat, maaa!!!!”
The shepherd understood what she meant. He looked at the rocky, uneven ground that the little lame lamb was lying on. Then he looked at the pasture that was up the hill. That pasture had even ground, and lush, green grass. So the shepherd decided to take the little lame lamb over to that pasture.
The mother lamb was distraught! “Why didn’t you do anything?” she cried, which sounded like, “Baa, baa, bleat, bleat, baa, maaa!!!”
The shepherd understood her, and patted her on the head. “You are just a sheep, with a sheep’s brain,” he told her gently. “You do not understand that I did help your little lame lamb. I took him to a greener pasture, a better place. It was the best thing to do for him.”
“Can I go and see him?” asked the mother.
“One day I will take you to the pasture to join him,” the shepherd assured her. “Only, for right now all you have to do is focus on taking care of the rest of your little lambs. Do not worry about your lame, little lamb. He is no longer in pain, and is quite all right.”
Although the mother sheep did not understand the shepherd, she knew that he was good, and that he had done the best thing for her little, lame lamb. So she stopped worrying about him, and took care of her other little lambs just as the shepherd had told her to. However, sometimes she would stand at the fence of her pasture and look up to the hill, with the knowledge that her little lamb was okay up there, where the shepherd was, and that someday, she would go there too.
As a note, the shepherd doesn’t always do this with his lambs. Sometimes he heals them. Other times he doesn’t, but uses their suffering for good. And then sometimes, it goes like it did for the little lamb in this story.
Here is the prologue to this story, which is better I think: The Little Lost Lamb
