Perhaps the imagery seems outdated, but has humanity in the modern world really outgrown its need for someone to love us fiercely and forever the way only a truly Good Shepherd can?
In our quiet and secret moments, we yearn for someone stronger and wiser to take care of us. As Neal Plantinga once wrote, those of us who were raised in solid and good homes carry around with us the memory of how delicious it was to be tucked into our cozy beds at night without worries that would threaten our rest.
Kids go to bed without fretting about whether ice will back up under the shingles, or whether the forecasted heavy weather will turn violent, or whether the bills can be paid, or whether someone at the IRS might just find that one tax deduction a bit TOO creative.
No, as children we wriggled drowsily in our beds awash in the knowledge that someone else was in charge and so we happily allowed ourselves to slip over the edge of slumber the way only a child can, with literally no cares to make our minds too busy to sleep.
We adults carry that memory in our sub-conscious and we yearn for something like it again. Indeed, we pine for it even more acutely because now we know what it is like to live without that security.
Now we know what it’s like to wait for results from the pathology lab. Now we know what it’s like to watch a deadly storm roar ever closer on the TV’s radar scope. Now maybe we’ve gone through the pain of having to bid first grandparents and then parents and finally even friends a final goodbye.
Thanks to Scott Hoezee. Thanks to Ryutaro Tsukata for the picture.
Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10: 14-15)
I hope that you were raised in a solid and good home and carry around with you the memory of how delicious it was to be tucked into your cozy bed at night without any worries that would threaten your rest.
Even if YOU were not raised in that kind of a home, Jesus the Good Shepherd tucks YOU into a cozy bed tonight if only YOU will let him do so.
GOD IS NOT A CELESTIAL PRISON WARDEN JANGLING KEYS. GOD IS A SHEPHERD LOOKING FOR SHEEP, A FATHER WAITING FOR HIS SON.
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