I am so thankful to my mother, for she saw the value of going to Church where my father did not. Despite his attitude toward Church, he never tried to stop her from going. He also never volunteered to drop her off either, so she would make every effort to get me and my younger sisters ready, and take us to Church each week. My mother at this time didn't drive, so we relied on the generosity of others, and there was a very kind couple that lived close to us that picked us up. I also owe them a big debt of gratitude.
I fondly remember as a child going to Church and how much I loved the people there. There was a sense of safety being among those familiar faces. As an early teen I had many friends in Church, and I even enjoyed playing some of the goofy games that the well-meaning Sunday School teachers would put together for us. Soon however, I became influenced by another group of friends and I slowly drifted away. I still attended each Sunday, but was basically a hooligan with my friends the rest of the week.
Eventually this behavior took it's toll. I began getting in trouble with the law and even spent time in the Indianapolis Juvenile Detention Center on two occasions. The second time I was detained, I spent 40 days in confinement. Prior to this I had not been attending Church that often, but my mother never stopped going. Although I didn't know it, word eventually got to Jeff Dinger, my Sunday School teacher about where I was at.
One Sunday, afternoon I remember the guard calling my name. He told me that I had a visitor. I went into a room and sat down wondering who it might be. The buzzers sounded in the next room letting me know that someone was coming through each gate.Finally the door buzzed, and slowly opened. A very tall, well dressed, man stepped into the room smiled at me.
It was my Sunday School teacher Jeff Dinger. I remember hanging my head in shame and thinking of how awful a person he must have thought I was. Although I greatly admired and loved this man, he was the last person that I wanted to see come through that door. I couldn't speak at first for I felt an over-whelming sense of shame, and yes, I wanted to cry. Not just because I was incarcerated and embarrassed, but I also knew that he had left his Sunday School class just to come visit me.
Before saying a word, he came over to me, leaned down, and gave me a big hug. There was no condemnation, and he was not there to judge or scold me. Jeff was there simply because he loved me, and there was no better an ice breaker like a big hug. After talking for a while, he pulled out of his pocket a couple of Sunday School lesson books. He brought me a bible and told me I could keep it. He then opened his bible and told me that today's lesson would be found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, verse 3. Jeff then read...
Luke 15:3-7
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
He instructed me to read this passage in my bible over the next week, and to reflect upon it. He prayed with me, gave me another hug, then we parted company. He walked back through the facility buzzer by buzzer, and door by door. I was then escorted into another room where I was strip searched for contraband, and then taken back to my unit.
As I laid on my bunk later that night I thought about the bible passage that Jeff had read to me. I knew that I was the lost sheep that he had come searching for, leaving his Sunday School class in the open country. I also knew that the man that had visited me that day was the shepherd that came to find his lost sheep. He was a shepherd that to me, looked like Jesus, the Good Shepherd who loves His sheep.
