The Little Lost Lamb
Number of illustrations needed for this story: 13
I’m going to tell you about a shepherd who had many sheep. He had 100 sheep. That is a
very lot of sheep. Hold all of your fingers up and imagine that each finger is ten
fingers. That’s how many sheep and lambs this shepherd had. But even though he had
so many, he loved them all very very much.
Now the sheep had a cozy place to sleep at night with a fence around it. But every
day the shepherd would open the gate of the fence, and he would take his sheep and lambs
out to the meadows to eat grass. All day long he would watch them and keep them safe.
You know, he would make sure that none of them got lost, and if he ever saw any wild
animals, he chased them away so that they wouldn’t eat his precious little lambs. Then
when it started to get dark it was time to go home. As his sheep went in through the
gate he would count them: “... ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred”.
And then he’d know that they were all there, and he’d close the gate.
One day, the shepherd led all of his sheep up to the top of a mountain where there was
lots of green grass and pretty flowers. The sheep were very happy for a very long time.
But then the shepherd noticed that the sky was filling with grey clouds. There was going
to be a storm. He got his sheep all gathered together, and they headed home to where it
was safe. As they were walking all the way back home, it started to thunder. The loud
booms of thunder scared the sheep.
Even though lightning was starting to flash down from the sky, the shepherd counted all
of his sheep as they went through the gate: “ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight,
ninety-nine....” But that was all. There were only ninety-nine sheep. One little
lamb was missing. It was a very tiny little lamb with black around its ears and tail.
And it was nowhere to be seen.
“I must find the little lamb,” the shepherd said, and he started to count all of his
sheep again. As he was counting, rain suddenly started to pour down from the skies.
But he counted them all anyway. No, that little lamb was not there.
How sad! What do you think the shepherd should do? It is raining now, and the lightning
is flashing, and the thunder is booming. There are so many gray clouds that the shepherd
cannot even see the sun shining anymore, and everything has become very dark. Should he
go inside where he would be safe?
No. The shepherd loved his little lamb too much to do that. I am sure that you or me
would just think of going inside. Of course we would be sad about the lamb, but we
wouldn’t want to venture out in the storm, would we? Oh no. But the shepherd never
even thought of going into his house. He knew that his lamb must be very frightened
out in a storm like this, and so, with the rain pouring down on him, he started off
toward the grassy slope where he had taken the sheep that day.
It was a very long walk. By the time the shepherd reached the bottom of the mountain,
his clothes were soaking wet. He was feeling very cold now too, and he shivered as he
started to climb the mountain. He could hardly see where he was going, and so he stumbled
and fell a great many times. Sometimes there were trees in front of him that he didn’t
see, and he would bang his head on them. There were also thorns on the mountain. He
could not see where they were, and so he walked right into them. How that must have hurt.
Have you ever been poked by a thorn? Doesn’t it hurt? Well, the shepherd got scraped
and scratched by many thorns, and it really hurt. But he kept going up the mountain.
Whenever the lightning would flash, he would look around to see if his lamb was anywhere
close by. But nowhere did he see his poor little lamb with the black spots. One time,
the shepherd tripped and fell over a log. His shoe fell off, and it went rolling down the
mountain side. But it was too dark to look for it. So he kept walking with a bare foot.
Now, whenever he stepped on rocks and thorns, they made his foot hurt very badly. His other
shoe got cut on several sharp rocks, and so the rocks and thorns poked through it and hurt
that foot too.
The poor shepherd! His feet and hands were bleeding. His head hurt badly. His clothes
were torn. He was tired and wet and cold. And he could not find his lamb anywhere.
Then suddenly, the rain stopped. Now the moon began to shine down brightly, and the
shepherd could finally see where he was going. How happy this made him!
Then the shepherd heard a noise. It was coming from the very top of the mountain.
And do you know what it said? It said, “Baa-a-a-a. Baa-a-a-a.” Now the shepherd
began to run. Even though his feet and hands hurt so badly, and even though he
was so tired and cold, he ran until he came to a place where there was a deep
hole in the ground. The hole went straight down
into the ground, and it would be extremely hard to get down into it
without falling and getting hurt. There were also many sharp rocks and prickly
thorns, so that if anyone tried climbing down into the hole, they would hurt their
feet and hands. But down in the very bottom of that deep scary dark hole was the poor
little lamb. It was scared and wet, and it was crying, “Baa-a-a-a. BAA-A-A-A.”
We know that the shepherd loved his little lamb very much, and so he started to
climb down the steep edge to where his lamb was. Of course this cut his hands and feet
even more, and scraped his face and head. He wanted to cry, “Ouch!” But he just kept
bravely going on until he came to the bottom of the hole. There he gathered his little
lamb in his arms. It nestled close to him, feeling safe and happy now.
But the shepherd had a lot of troublesome things to do. The sides of the hole were
very steep, and he had to climb back out again. It would be kind of like trying to
climb up the wall. And he had to carry the lamb all the way up too. That would make
it even harder.
First of all, the shepherd tucked the lamb inside of his coat so that it wouldn’t get
scraped up anymore than it already was. Then he grabbed hold of the prickly thorns with
his bare hands, and s-l-o-w-l-y began to pull himself up the steep edge. It took him
a long time to get to the top, and his other shoe fell off and tumbled down into the hole,
but he made it. Then he sat down in the moonlight with his little lamb cuddled on his
lap and rested for a while. He did not rest very long though, because he knew he had
to get home.
It was much easier to go down the mountain, because he could actually see where he was
going. But still, every step he took made his feet hurt terribly, for they were cut
and bleeding. Holding the lamb made the scrapes and thorn-pricks on his hands hurt very
badly too, and whenever the lamb nuzzled his face, it made the scratches and cuts on it
start bleeding again. But he made it all the way home with his precious lamb, and he
dried it off and put it in a warm bed of straw to sleep for the night. So his lamb was
safe and happy and warm.
Did you know that I didn’t just make this story up? I found a story like this in the
Scriptures.
It is about our Savior. Messiah is like a shepherd and we are like sheep. He takes
care of
us, and He loves everyone of us. But we have all done bad things. And because we have,
we deserve to be lost out in a storm like that little lamb, and to get cold and hungry,
and to die. We all deserve to die forever because of the bad things we have done.
Our Savior has never done anything bad. He lived with His Father up in the skies where
everything was pleasant and nice like a warm happy home. But He saw that people were
doing bad things and that they were unhappy and that they were like sheep lost out on
a mountain. He saw that they were going to die. He saw that you and I were going to
die. And so instead of staying in His warm pleasant home, He came all the way down to
earth, and He made Himself look like a man so that people could see Him. He came to
teach us how to live and how to be happy. He came to show us how we could live forever
with Him, instead of being lost out on a mountain and dying.
And then, He took our punishment for us. He allowed wicked men who hated Him very
much to kill Him, and He died for us, so that we wouldn’t have to die forever. He said,
“I don’t want you to be punished. I’m going to be punished instead, so that you can
live forever.” Mean men pushed thorns against His head. They whipped Him, and they
hung Him up on a piece of wood by hammering nails through His hands and His feet. And
then after He died, they poked a big hole in His side with a sword. Isn’t that terrible?
But do you know what? It wasn’t just the wicked men who killed Him.
It was my fault just as much, and it was your fault too. It was all of our fault.
Because if we hadn’t sinned, He wouldn’t have had to die. He only died because we sinned,
and because He didn’t want us to be punished and to have to die forever.
He did the same kind of thing that the shepherd in our story did.
If that lamb hadn’t stayed behind and gotten lost, the shepherd wouldn’t have had to go
out on the mountain and get hurt and cold and tired. But he did all of that because he
loved the lamb. And Messiah came and let men say mean things about Him and put thorns
all over His head and beat Him and pound nails into Him and cut His side with a sword,
all because He loves you. And because of that, someday when you die, you won’t have to
stay dead forever. Just like Messiah came back to life, you will be able to come back
to life, and live forever with Him, because He loves you. You are His little lamb, and
He wants you to be safe and happy with Him. Isn’t that wonderful?
I hope you will always remember what your Savior did for you. I hope you will never
forget how much He loves you.
Illustration Ideas
Here the story will be repeated, broke down with suggestions for illustrations.
You do not necessarily have to follow these suggestions, but be sure to read over this section before you begin
drawing your illustrations.
Don't hesitate to simplify the illustration ideas for very little artists.
Please encourage children to do their very best, according to their individual
abilities,
but remember that we want "Thou Hast Ordained Praise" to be an opportunity for
all ages, and we do not expect "perfect pictures". It is highly encouraged that
children
of all ages get involved.
There are several illustration ideas given for each page.
These are here for you to choose from, or perhaps you will want to come up with your
own ideas. You should do at least one illustration for each page.
If you want to combine several ideas
in one illustration, or if you want to do two
illustrations for some or all of the pages, that is fine too. Be creative!
You may prefer having your children each illustrate
their own book. If you want to have your children illustrate
a book together, that is perfectly fine too. Since each
page can have as many as two illustrations, it is an option to have an older child
and a younger child both draw an
illustration for the
same page.
I’m going to tell you about a shepherd who had many sheep. He had 100 sheep. That is a
very lot of sheep. Hold all of your fingers up and imagine that each finger is ten
fingers. That’s how many sheep and lambs this shepherd had. But even though he had
so many, he loved them all very very much.
Now the sheep had a cozy place to sleep at night with a fence around it. But every
day the shepherd would open the gate of the fence, and he would take his sheep and lambs
out to the meadows to eat grass. All day long he would watch them and keep them safe.
You know, he would make sure that none of them got lost, and if he ever saw any wild
animals, he chased them away so that they wouldn’t eat his precious little lambs. Then
when it started to get dark it was time to go home. As his sheep went in through the
gate he would count them: “... ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred”.
And then he’d know that they were all there, and he’d close the gate.
Illustration ideas: 1) a whole bunch of sheep 2) the shepherd with his sheep out in a
pasture 3) the sheep going through the gate into their fence, and the shepherd standing at
the gate with his hand on the gate 4) A very young artist can just do a sheep.
One day, the shepherd led all of his sheep up to the top of a mountain where there was
lots of green grass and pretty flowers. The sheep were very happy for a very long time.
But then the shepherd noticed that the sky was filling with grey clouds. There was going
to be a storm. He got his sheep all gathered together, and they headed home to where it
was safe. As they were walking all the way back home, it started to thunder. The loud
booms of thunder scared the sheep.
Illustration ideas: 1) the mountain top, with the shepherd and sheep and pretty flowers growing
2) grey clouds overhead, and the shepherd walking home with his sheep 3) Little children
can do pretty flowers, and/or grey clouds
Even though lightning was starting to flash down from the sky, the shepherd counted all
of his sheep as they went through the gate: “ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight,
ninety-nine....” But that was all. There were only ninety-nine sheep. One little
lamb was missing. It was a very tiny little lamb with black around its ears and tail.
And it was nowhere to be seen.
Illustration ideas: 1) sheep going through the gate with the shepherd counting, while lightning
flashes from a dark sky 2) Little artists could do a flash of jagged lightning.
“I must find the little lamb,” the shepherd said, and he started to count all of his
sheep again. As he was counting, rain suddenly started to pour down from the skies.
But he counted them all anyway. No, that little lamb was not there.
How sad! What do you think the shepherd should do? It is raining now, and the lightning
is flashing, and the thunder is booming. There are so many gray clouds that the shepherd
cannot even see the sun shining anymore, and everything has become very dark. Should he
go inside where he would be safe?
No. The shepherd loved his little lamb too much to do that. I am sure that you or me
would just think of going inside. Of course we would be sad about the lamb, but we
wouldn’t want to venture out in the storm, would we? Oh no. But the shepherd never
even thought of going into his house. He knew that his lamb must be very frightened
out in a storm like this, and so, with the rain pouring down on him, he started off
toward the grassy slope where he had taken the sheep that day.
Illustration ideas: 1) the shepherd walking in the rain, with clouds overhead and lightning
flashing 2) Little children could draw a simple version of this, with raindrops falling on the
shepherd.
It was a very long walk. By the time the shepherd reached the bottom of the mountain,
his clothes were soaking wet. He was feeling very cold now too, and he shivered as he
started to climb the mountain. He could hardly see where he was going, and so he stumbled
and fell a great many times. Sometimes there were trees in front of him that he didn’t
see, and he would bang his head on them. There were also thorns on the mountain. He
could not see where they were, and so he walked right into them. How that must have hurt.
Have you ever been poked by a thorn? Doesn’t it hurt? Well, the shepherd got scraped
and scratched by many thorns, and it really hurt. But he kept going up the mountain.
Whenever the lightning would flash, he would look around to see if his lamb was anywhere
close by. But nowhere did he see his poor little lamb with the black spots. One time,
the shepherd tripped and fell over a log. His shoe fell off, and it went rolling down the
mountain side. But it was too dark to look for it. So he kept walking with a bare foot.
Now, whenever he stepped on rocks and thorns, they made his foot hurt very badly. His other
shoe got cut on several sharp rocks, and so the rocks and thorns poked through it and hurt
that foot too.
Illustration ideas: 1) the shepherd on the mountain (He could be missing a shoe, he could
have cuts on him and be bleeding some. Sharp rocks and thorns could be included in the picture.)
2) An idea for very little children is to trace their foot, and then let them add red marker
for the shepherd's bleeding foot.
The poor shepherd! His feet and hands were bleeding. His head hurt badly. His clothes
were torn. He was tired and wet and cold. And he could not find his lamb anywhere.
Then suddenly, the rain stopped. Now the moon began to shine down brightly, and the
shepherd could finally see where he was going. How happy this made him!
1) the shepherd standing in the moonlight 2) Generally, your pictures should be done on
standard-sized white paper, but for this picture, a little child could just do the moon
with a white crayon or chalk on a black piece of construction paper.
Then the shepherd heard a noise. It was coming from the very top of the mountain.
And do you know what it said? It said, “Baa-a-a-a. Baa-a-a-a.” Now the shepherd
began to run. Even though his feet and hands hurt so badly, and even though he
was so tired and cold, he ran until he came to a place where there was a deep
hole in the ground. The hole went straight down
into the ground, and it would be extremely hard to get down into it
without falling and getting hurt. There were also many sharp rocks and prickly
thorns, so that if anyone tried climbing down into the hole, they would hurt their
feet and hands. But down in the very bottom of that deep scary dark hole was the poor
little lamb. It was scared and wet, and it was crying, “Baa-a-a-a. BAA-A-A-A.”
Illustration ideas: 1) the lamb down in the hole 2) the shepherd, either standing or on his
hands and knees, looking down at the lamb in the hole
We know that the shepherd loved his little lamb very much, and so he started to
climb down the steep edge to where his lamb was. Of course this cut his hands and feet
even more, and scraped his face and head. He wanted to cry, “Ouch!” But he just kept
bravely going on until he came to the bottom of the hole. There he gathered his little
lamb in his arms. It nestled close to him, feeling safe and happy now.
Illustration ideas: 1) the shepherd down in the hole holding the lamb
But the shepherd had a lot of troublesome things to do. The sides of the hole were
very steep, and he had to climb back out again. It would be kind of like trying to
climb up the wall. And he had to carry the lamb all the way up too. That would make
it even harder.
First of all, the shepherd tucked the lamb inside of his coat so that it wouldn’t get
scraped up anymore than it already was. Then he grabbed hold of the prickly thorns with
his bare hands, and s-l-o-w-l-y began to pull himself up the steep edge. It took him
a long time to get to the top, and his other shoe fell off and tumbled down into the hole,
but he made it. Then he sat down in the moonlight with his little lamb cuddled on his
lap and rested for a while. He did not rest very long though, because he knew he had
to get home.
Illustration ideas: 1) the shepherd climbing out of the hole 2) the shepherd sitting in the
moonlight holding his lamb
It was much easier to go down the mountain, because he could actually see where he was
going. But still, every step he took made his feet hurt terribly, for they were cut
and bleeding. Holding the lamb made the scrapes and thorn-pricks on his hands hurt very
badly too, and whenever the lamb nuzzled his face, it made the scratches and cuts on it
start bleeding again. But he made it all the way home with his precious lamb, and he
dried it off and put it in a warm bed of straw to sleep for the night. So his lamb was
safe and happy and warm.
Illustration ideas: 1) the shepherd walking down the mountain with the lamb 2) the shepherd
drying the lamb off 3) the lamb sleeping in the straw
Did you know that I didn’t just make this story up? I found a story like this in the
Scriptures.
It is about our Savior. Messiah is like a shepherd and we are like sheep. He takes
care of
us, and He loves everyone of us. But we have all done bad things. And because we have,
we deserve to be lost out in a storm like that little lamb, and to get cold and hungry,
and to die. We all deserve to die forever because of the bad things we have done.
Illustration ideas: (For this section of the story, please keep in mind that because we
do not know what Messiah looks
like, and in deference to the command to not make an image
to worship, we make it a general practice to refrain from drawing detailed pictures
of the Messiah. See
Illustration Guidelines for more
explanation on this.)
1) an open book (Bible) with a shepherd and sheep drawn on the pages 2) a picture of a person
standing sadly out in the storm
Our Savior has never done anything bad. He lived with His Father up in the skies where
everything was pleasant and nice like a warm happy home. But He saw that people were
doing bad things and that they were unhappy and that they were like sheep lost out on
a mountain. He saw that they were going to die. He saw that you and I were going to
die. And so instead of staying in His warm pleasant home, He came all the way down to
earth, and He made Himself look like a man so that people could see Him. He came to
teach us how to live and how to be happy. He came to show us how we could live forever
with Him, instead of being lost out on a mountain and dying.
And then, He took our punishment for us. He allowed wicked men who hated Him very
much to kill Him, and He died for us, so that we wouldn’t have to die forever. He said,
“I don’t want you to be punished. I’m going to be punished instead, so that you can
live forever.” Mean men pushed thorns against His head. They whipped Him, and they
hung Him up on a piece of wood by hammering nails through His hands and His feet. And
then after He died, they poked a big hole in His side with a sword. Isn’t that terrible?
Illustration ideas: 1) nails being hammers into a hand 2) For a very little child, you could
trace one of their hands and one of their feet, and then help them draw a nail poking
into each of them.
But do you know what? It wasn’t just the wicked men who killed Him.
It was my fault just as much, and it was your fault too. It was all of our fault.
Because if we hadn’t sinned, He wouldn’t have had to die. He only died because we sinned,
and because He didn’t want us to be punished and to have to die forever.
He did the same kind of thing that the shepherd in our story did.
If that lamb hadn’t stayed behind and gotten lost, the shepherd wouldn’t have had to go
out on the mountain and get hurt and cold and tired. But he did all of that because he
loved the lamb. And Messiah came and let men say mean things about Him and put thorns
all over His head and beat Him and pound nails into Him and cut His side with a sword,
all because He loves you. And because of that, someday when you die, you won’t have to
stay dead forever. Just like Messiah came back to life, you will be able to come back
to life, and live forever with Him, because He loves you. You are His little lamb, and
He wants you to be safe and happy with Him. Isn’t that wonderful?
I hope you will always remember what your Savior did for you. I hope you will never
forget how much He loves you.
Illustration ideas: 1) child kneeling in prayer 2) a shepherd tenderly holding a lamb 3) a
child making the sign language love symbol 4) A
little artist could just draw a lamb here, or a smiling child.
This book, once it is completed, will actually be a 32-page book. This is the minimum amount of pages we can do for a perfect-bound book. We aim to stick with the smallest number of pages possible, to make it financially easy
for you to be able to get copies of your finished book.