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We’ve been fortunate over the last few weeks to have several of our young people share the word with us in our gatherings. My only disappointment has been that I’ve missed most of it because of holidays and ministry stuff! But the feedback has been very positive and it reminds me that God speaks to us through people of all ages - well done to Greg, Rachel and Joss for having the courage to stand up and give it a go.

On Sunday night I did manage to catch Joss’ message on the parable of the lost sheep - the next instalment in our series on the Kingdom of God. Joss has a gift for telling stories and shared some great ones on Sunday. Her intro was about a nephew of hers that went missing and while the search and rescue helicopter, police, fire brigade and ambulance looked everywhere, the boy was hiding from his Mum in the bushes. The sort of story that will become legend in this kid life later on!

But it did illustrate nicely the feelings and emotions that we go through when people we love, especially our kids, go missing. Joss told us how in 1st century Israel, for a shepherd to go after one lost sheep meant placing himself in great danger. The terrain was rocky and there was never any grantee of finding the animal alive. Yet the shepherd still went - a beautiful picture of God searching for us.

The sheep that wandered was not somebody who had never heard the message of Jesus, but somebody who had, but then had wandered away and was no longer living the faith. Joss gave us a dose of reality when she said that all of us had wandered like this at some point and God, yet when we were found there was huge celebrations and rejoicing in heaven. Joss description of that rejoicing, and her conclusion to her message, gave me goose bumps…

Joss told a final story of a shopping trip to Dimmeys and how she saw a little boy wander into the centre of a circular rack of clothes. Suddenly the boy got a bit frightened and started calling out to his mother. The mother started to call back, looking around frantically for him. She ran to the front of the store, not sure where the voice was coming from but all the time getting more distressed as her little boy became more upset. Finally she found him and kneeling on the floor of the shop she hug and kissed her boy, both of them with tears running down their faces. That, said Joss, was real rejoicing.

God’s spirit moved in our midst on Sunday night. Many were challenged and one came to faith for the first time. Angels were rejoicing all round. And God shed a little tear of happiness.

For me, it was simply a privilege to be there.