"There Is Something Astonishing in the Christian Religion"
In the Catacombs at Rome there is no more familiar painting than that of the Good Shepherd with the straying sheep. Sometimes the other sheep are at His feet, gazing up at Him and at His burden; sometimes He is portrayed as sitting down, wearied with His long and painful journey; but always there is a great gladness in the picture, for the painter had felt, in all its morning freshness, the wonder of the seeking love of God.
I trust we shall never lose that sense of wonder. "Let men say what they will," wrote Pascal, "I must avow there is something astonishing in the Christian religion."
And there is nothing in it more astonishing than this, that God should have come to seek and save the lost.