The God who Stoops

“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’

 (Luke 15: 4 – 6 – TM)

To lift something up we must first bend down. The religious leaders – Priests, Pharisees and Scribes were men who stood erect, upright and proud. It is doubtful if they ever considered the concept of a stooping God. Yet, in this parable, we find Father God pictured as a shepherd stooping to lift a lost and frightened sheep to his heart and as a woman stooping in the dust and dirt of her eastern home searching for a lost coin. Even the father, despising all propriety and the custom associated with his position as an elder man in eastern culture – stooped to a level, which was unheard of.

But the concept of a God who stoops was not new - for it is embedded firmly in the creation story. In it we see God stooping down to breathe life in to his first created child - Adam – in a form of mouth-to-mouth life infusion. This kiss of life to man necessitated a stooping God. In fact the God who stoops can be found throughout history, from Genesis to Revelation.

Yet, the supreme act of condescension was when God stooped down to become a man – heaven bending down to touch earth in a way it never had before. The shepherd, woman and father in our parable all find their true expression in the life of the man who related them – Jesus, the human face of the Father. He was as Wesley put it – “Love divine all loves excelling – joy of heaven to earth come down”. Love stoops to find us– to lift yus– to restore us– to welcome usand to rejoice over us. This is the heart of the Father.