one solitary sheep

Week 37  Matthew 18

The Lord tells a story about a lost sheep and even though he talks about the sheep and a shepherd his main point is not about sheep at all.
The sheep gets lost and the shepherd goes out searching for it. Eventually he finds it and he’s very happy when he does.
But Matthew goes on to say in the same way it is not my heavenly Fathers’ will that even one of these little ones should perish. It looks to me like in the same way means I have to take the fictional story and fill-in the factual equivalents. The fictional tips me off about the factual.
The lost sheep = a lost person
The shepherd = the Lord
The shepherd is concerned about the sheep = the Lord is concerned about a lost person
The shepherd searches for the lost sheep = the Lord searches for a lost person
The shepherd is happy when he finds the lost sheep = the Lord is glad he recovered the lost person.
By transferring the elements of the sheep-and-shepherd I understand something about the Lord.
And it’s very useful to know that the Lord is concerned about individual people. That he searches people out. That he’s hoping to find them. To bring them home. That it is not (his) will that even one of these little ones should perish.
Already having 99 sheep is good but not good enough. The Lord wants the lost one too.

Note: Matthew 18:14 (NLT)