“What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.”  Matthew 18:12-14

This morning (Good Shepherd Sunday) our Collie Moss and I went for a government-approved, socially-distanced walk in the sunshine. The birds were singing (especially a very vocal cuckoo) and there was the sound of sheep being fed in the distance.  On our way back along the track, Moss stopped and lay down, in the way that he does when he’s heard a vehicle.  Sure enough along came our neighbouring crofter on his quad bike. He told us that one of his sheep had disappeared and he was out searching for it and asked us if we had seen it.