God's "Faulty" Logic

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.

Mt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

Now this is one of the most interesting and intriguing biblical passages that I have come across with. Not only does this one defy logic but also it defies all attempts at rationalizing God's way of doing things. How in the world, for example, are we to explain to people that God truly loves us unconditionally when even He would all the way go to the extent of leaving behind all 99 good sheep just to look for us? What will the other 99 say upon seeing us being carried lovingly by the Shepherd? Will they not grind their teeth in jealousy if not in outright anger seeing us being pampered?

The "answer" to this question came to me one night when I was at home. My mother was waiting for our "lost" brother to come home. We, her children, knew how useless it was to wait and look for someone who didn't want to be found. But there she was, persistent, ready to leave her other sheep to make sure that the lost one was found, fed and taken care of. Only another mother can fathom that mystery, that ineffable bond that connects all mothers to their children no matter how bad or good they have been.

I understood a little of what the Shepherd is up to everytime He goes out in search of the lost and those who don't want to be found. I look at my mother and see, no motivation other than love, prompts her to patiently wait for her lost son. It is not that she loves more my lost brother than the rest of us beside her. She just knows who needs more loving and understanding and caring at that particular time among us her children. And that sensitive loving does not diminish in anyway her love for all of us. And I believe, that should the same thing happen to me--if I get lost along the way, she will be there to look and wait for me.

God's "faulty" logic has its use: to save the lost who would not otherwise be saved if God merely uses logic. Blaise Pascal once said: The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.