After a ten hour day serving the church I grabbed two nano-seconds to glance over the paper the other day. I was struck by an article that caused me to slow down and ponder the question of who is running the asylum.
Seems an insane murderer was taken by the prison personnel to visit a nearby country festival. Taking an insane imprisoned murderer out on a field trip is bizzare enough, but this particular person also escaped from whomever was supposed to be keeping an eye on him. For three days he was lost before he was found. Sort of like one of those lost sheep Jesus tells us we should go out and seek to bring back into the fold. I couldn’t agree more.
We keep sheep in a pen for a variety of reasons, the main one being so that they will not run away and are kept safe from snarling, hungry wolves. Why then would any sane person think it wise to take an insane murdering sheep out of the pen for a joy ride and a trip to the fair? Of course, my imagination wanders all over creation on that one and I think “well, maybe it was a trial trip to see if he behaved himself.” “Or, maybe he had been a model prisoner and earned the trip to the festivities.’” What were they thinking? Gratefully, the lost sheep was found and returned to the sheep pen to hopefully be kept safe and, dare I say, sound. I think I am going to stop trying to figure out who is running the world. It is quite obvious it is the inmates! God help us all.