Seeking Our Lambs

When Christ came to earth, one mission was especially close to His heart. The mission’s rhythm beats steadily throughout all the gospels, but one line in Luke is like a closing cadence to Messiah’s song:

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke 19:10

So, if Jesus came to seek and save those who are lost, what does that say about how we should bring up our children? God commanded Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). He made a husband and wife one because He is seeking “godly seed” (Malachi 2:15). God is on the move, ever seeking Godly fruit for a new generation of disciples. He has a long-range plan, one more pressing, more eternal than today’s textbooks, mounds of laundry, utility bills, and music practices.

Not that these things don’t have importance. But as women, it’s so easy to get caught up in perfection that we forget preservation. What do we gain if our children have the genius of Albert Einstein yet lose their own soul? Or what exchange is the applause of family, friends, or fraternities if our children’s salvation is the sacrifice?

But how easily we are sidetracked. No Christian parent sets out to sabotage the spiritual future of their children. But how many parents do you know right now that are weeping in prayer over one, two, or three prodigals? Somewhere, we have to stop doing it as everyone else does – including how everyone else who home-educates. The new birth is not passed on through our genes or environment. It takes a mother, walking daily in the Spirit and word of God, to light the narrow way for her children. Do our lives, values, and actions tattle on us that we are seeking those who are lost?

Let’s be clear: we know Christ is the only One Who can save and no man comes to the Father, but through Him. But if Jesus declares one of the reasons He became flesh and dwelt among us was to seek and save, shouldn’t that be our mission too? Or to fully bring it home…

Shouldn’t that be my mission? My calling. My daily thought. My heart. Shouldn’t my mind and spirit be so conformed to the image of Christ, that I’m actively seeking those who don’t know Him? It’s a condition of the heart, of the spirit that is always seeking for the lost, just as my hunting-lovin’ brother seeks the deer in our Ozark hills and meadows. It’s a love that hurts us, that moves and that seeks; just like the love that hurt and moved and sent our Shepherd seeking us. Will you come? Will you pray for your children until it hurts, until your heart beats in rhythm with our Father’s heartbeat?

Kenzi Knapp is a follower of Christ, homeschool graduate and student of history. A fourth generation Missourian she enjoys writing about daily life enrolled in Gods great course of faith and His story throughout the ages at her blog, Honey Rock Hills.