Sheep

Went to a friend's son's Christening yesterday (thoughts on Christenings to be left to another day!) and they acted out the story of the Lost Sheep with some of the children. The woman who was the shepherd took all the sheep with her when she went to look for the lost sheep.
You know I had never seen it that way. Some how I'd seen it as the shepherd being more concerned over the one missing sheep than the safe 99 so had left them behind, a sort of safety in numbers thing. Bur really there is no way Jesus would leave us who are with Him to look for one who isn't. Of course He would take us with Him. And remembering the whole thing of middle eastern sheep is that they follow the shepherd wherever he calls and wouldn't have stayed behind anyway.
So does this mean that as Church we really should all be going off to look for the lost, in a crowd, rather than just waiting for the lost to either come to us or for those "called to evangelize" to bring the lost back?
At the end of this story the sheep had a party along with the shepherd. Suddenly this story makes loads more sense. Now to work out how to put it into practice.