Please read the passage before reading the comments.
Parents who have a child who has disappeared will leave their other children in a safe place as they go looking for the lost one. Jesus’ mother and father went looking for him when he stayed behind in Jerusalem. Jesus knew the experience of being lost and the anguish of parents looking for lost children.
Even the parents of animals know the sorrow of losing an offspring. Cows that have had their calves die often find a maverick calf to adopt and feed.
Good shepherds, like good parents, human and animal, take care of the weak and lost. Jesus put himself up as ethe example of the good shepherd, the good parent, the one who cares ofr the eeak and the lost.
What about us humans? Why do we not learn from nature, if not from Jesus, how to care for one another? We allow wars to go on; we kill one another; we close our hearts to those in need. We don’t smell like the sheep we tend, which means that we do not smell like Jesus. If we do not smell like Jesus, how will we enjoy his presence in heaven?