Listen

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. That’s because he isn’t the shepherd; the sheep aren’t really his. So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. He’s only a hired hand and the sheep don’t matter to him.”

John 10:11-13

Think

I love the idea of being one of Jesus’s sheep. When I think of shepherds and sheep, I think of lush green meadows. Grazing flocks obediently following their shepherd. Pure white wooly-soft lambs skipping about.

So I was a bit surprised when I heard a modern-day shepherd talking about sheep on a podcast. It turns out that from a distance sheep might look like soft, puffy clouds, but up close, they’re a different story. A sheep’s fleece can easily get dirty and filled with nettles and twigs. Though they look docile, sheep can be wily and stubborn, resisting the shepherd’s efforts to take care of them – to give them needed medicine or clip off overgrown wool.

It’s likely the people of Jesus’s day would have known this about sheep. They might remind us that, like us, sheep aren’t naturally loveable. But despite our tangled wool and our stubbornness, the Good Shepherd loves us and cares for us just as we are – because we are his.

Jane Claspy Nesmith

Pray

Good and loving shepherd, thank you for your love for me – your stubborn, unkempt sheep. Let me find safety in your care. Amen.

Go

Go, knowing that the good shepherd is with you

In grassy meadows,

Beside restful waters,

Through shadowy dark valleys.

Go, knowing that the good shepherd, Jesus Christ,

Claims you as his own.