Lost!

We were so excited about the baby goat! It was a few days old by now and was venturing out of hiding. I called Howard to the window at breakfast to see it frolicking in the pasture by its mother. We watched laughing and marveling at the little creature's cute antics, until finally I left the window to begin the day.

Shortly, Howard called with alarm in his voice. "The little goat is gone!" he announced ominously.

"But you were watching it!" I exclaimed, although by this time he was at the sink washing the breakfast dishes.

"I just left for a minute, and when I looked again, there was no sign of her!" he said grimly. That was strange, for Mama goat was grazing unconcernedly nearby.

"We have to go look for her!" I decided. We got in the car, drove through the pasture gate and looked in sheds and out-buildings. She was nowhere to be found! We even looked down by the pond, to no avail.

All day we worried in frustration at the little goat's disappearance. Since there was a stand of thick, tall grass directly behind their grazing area, we concluded that a wild animal or a soaring eagle must have grabbed her. We went about our day with heavy hearts.

Later that day as the sun was about to set, we heard a commotion outside. Our son Greg was yelling something, and we heard bleating from the goat's mother as she dashed around frantically in the pasture.

"I heard the little goat!" Greg shouted, heading for that tall grass in the pasture. We rushed out just in time to see our hero son, striding along with open shirt and the young goat in his arms! He looked like Hercules just then!

He told us he heard bleating under a pile of boards from a dismantled barn in the over-growth. He reached in and pulled the baby out! Evidently she had fallen through and had been there all day! What a happy reunion for mama and baby!

I couldn't help but think of the story in the Bible that Jesus told of the lost sheep. The shepherd would not give up until he found him, as the parable goes.(Matthew 18:12-13, Luke 15:4-6). The song had been going through my head all day, and I found myself singing it as I prayed and thought about the missing goat.

May we be just as diligent for a lost soul! Jesus said in Luke 18:14, "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."