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Hannah and the Good Shepherd

Andrea Schrock Wenger

Hannah Joseph, 12, was lost yesterday. It turns out she was just slumped in a chair in the doctor’s waiting room, doing as her grandmother had instructed. But somehow the dozens of people looking for her had missed her. It was probably the longest hour-and-a-half in Hannah’s mother’s life.

Hannah’s grandmother, Shirley Breeding, had dropped Hannah at Food City to pick up a magazine. She was to then walk the short distance from the grocery store to the Mountain Comprehensive Health Care facility to wait while Shirley had an appointment. By the time Hannah got to the office, Shirley was already in with the doctor, so she settled in with her magazine. But Shirley somehow missed seeing her when she came out of the office.

A stroll through the Mountain Comp facilities, then the grocery store and parking areas, and back to the doctor’s office yielded no sign of Hannah. Paging her over the intercom system in both buildings yielded nothing.

People began to worry. Shirley called Jackie, Hannah’s mother. Soon, health care staff, grocery clerks, patients awaiting appointments and other shoppers were in on the search.

As worry grew, tears began to flow. Police stopped traffic, questioned drivers and peered under seats and into trunks. An unidentified man stopped Mennonite Central Committee US worker Shari Iverson, in an MCC van, to question her as to the identity of the child with her, her daughter Erin, age 7.

In this small town, it didn’t take long for word to spread and panic to set in.

Of course, it turned out to be unnecessary panic. Eventually a patient at the health care facility saw Hannah on the floor reading her magazine. “Are you Hannah Joseph?” she asked. “Did you know everyone is looking for you?” Hannah had no idea.

Reunited with her mother and grandmother, Hannah realized the enormity of what had happened. Held in her mother’s arms, the girl burst into tears.

I couldn’t help thinking of the parable of the lost sheep when I heard about Hannah’s experience. In it, Jesus says that God loves us as a shepherd loves his sheep. And, even if 99 sheep come into the fold at night, the shepherd will not rest till the hundredth sheep is found.

I remember hearing that story as a child sitting in a basement Sunday school room at Kingview Mennonite Church in Scottdale, Pa. I can still picture the curriculum’s handout for the day – a shepherd in a flowing white robe, wind and rain buffeting him as he shields his eyes, scanning the horizon for his lost sheep. It made an impression on me then. I liked sheep because our neighbours had some. They were precious.

But Hannah’s story makes a bigger impression on me. Perhaps it’s because I’m a mother now, and I get choked up thinking about how Hannah’s mother must have felt in those minutes of wondering. I feel the enormity of a mother’s love for her children, and I think anew about God’s love for me. If God loves us like a mother or father loves a child, then I know that it is a fierce love.


I think also about the broader community that joined in the search for Hannah. Without thought, they left work responsibilities, a place in the check-out line or a doctor’s appointment to join the search. Hannah didn’t ask for people to look for her. Hannah didn’t even know she was lost. But strangers and kin saw nothing more important in that moment than finding her.

I find comfort, knowing that God loves me in much the same way. Even when I don’t ask for God’s love. Even when I don’t realize that I am lost. Even when I feel I couldn’t deserve God’s love. That is when God loves me most, unconditionally, without reason. And God rejoices when I connect anew with Him, when I am found.

Andrea Schrock Wenger and her husband Delbert are co-program coordinators for Mennonite Central Committee Kentucky. They live in Whitesburg, Ky. with their children Eliott and Leah. This article was distributed as a news article by MCC April 23, 1999.

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Last modified May 17, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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